My husband and I decided we wanted to get into multi-family real estate investment because we wanted to be able to have some passive cash flow, build up some equity, and leave a legacy for our kids.

We started looking and asked our real estate agent to help us.

The real estate agent that had helped us get our single-family house knew nothing about investment property. Though she tried her best, she really was completely ignorant about what we needed to look for, and alas, mostly so were we.

The commercial brokers who could have helped us were not interested in speaking to "small fries" who had no real experience in multi-family investing.

We were looking for a fourplex in Los Angeles where we live, and the prices were unbelievably high. It was really hard to find a deal where (a) we could even afford it and (b) where we'd be making any money.

I was incredibly frustrated and eventually despaired that we'd ever find anything.

Then, fate stepped in, as it often does when you're...