Believe me, I know my post sounds like something straight out of 1973, and sometimes it's even hard for me to wrap my head around, as while I'm a native to this area, I grew up largely in central coastal Florida, where prices are understandably quite disconnected from prices where I am currently.

Just a heads up, I believe you have to be a managing broker in order to open a brokerage so your boss would need to take the steps mentioned not you.Additionally, just curious what your desire to open a brokerage is? 

Highlight the benefits and stick it in her head that it's best she sells that way.

Even when you think you are over your head, just remember your purpose.

We are hoping to house hack another property in Q1, so the personal items being packed up could be in alignment with the direction we are headed anyway. 

I started reading -to be honest quite ‘slowly’- and while I was reading I started getting heads in , I didn’t  search for a property “because I didn’t even know where would be a good start” all I typed in in the ‘find deals’ on BP.com was ‘multi family’ I came across a 3 unit occupied multi family  in Pittsburgh that the price and return seemed to be very profitable.

Mainly around i35because tis pretty easy to jump onto i35 and head to Austin if you have to go there a couple days a week for work. 

Your agent should be getting advance notice of properties “coming soon” to the market, so you can get a head start on analyzing them. 

And I would be beating the seller over the head with that $140k appraisal.

All great points and they get you thinking about where this market is headed.