With a 4-plex, it still falls under the residential bucket, so appraisers will lean on comparable sales rather than just income.

This ensures you still build a tax-free bucket for retirement, balancing your overall tax exposure.Once you’ve handled debt and optimized tax-advantaged accounts in this order, you’ll be in the best position to funnel additional cash flow into real estate or other income-producing assets.

Will buy trailer roof paint.  5 gallon bucket covers 3 rooftops.  

I know the Appfolio sales team, as well as Juniper Square, and all the other investor portals try to talk up how they are a CRM, but they simply are not.Salesforce is your most powerful CRM, and likely overkill for 99% of situationsHubspot is a great option, and depending on contact list size is fairly affordableGoHighLevel is another one that is becoming more popular, but I have never used directly.There are a ton out there, and I am biased to Hubspot, because it is the one I have the most experience with, but the general contact record tracking, customization, ability to build dashboards, etc are all great in Hubspot and adequate to track contacts that may fall into various buckets: i.e. you can build your broker lists, your investor lists, your tenant lists, track your calls to each, setup up custom email campaigns for each separately, etc.

When we had a large dog it was my kids job to pick it up , he did and put it in a 5 gallon bucket , he did that for a week , then it rained . 

Can see how there would be enough variation to go case by case and not attempt to bucket everything.

Based on what you’ve laid out at the moment you essentially have three separate buckets and as structured they can’t offset one another (for example, #2 won’t unlock the losses from #1 to offset #3).

They're usually stuck in a "passive" bucket.Here’s how the "STR Loophole" legally moves those losses to your "active" bucket to slash your tax bill.

I can't use a self-directed IRA, as I am still employed with company that holds that bucket of money. 

If you have money money, like family money then you can be reckless and overpay and spend your way out of bad deals, take risks, play in the higher buckets, and even if you're an idiot with money - the historical appreciation of RE over the long run can make them look like a genius.