Living in one unit and renting out the others could offset a significant portion of your mortgage, giving you extra breathing room as the sole income earner.

I struggle with podcasts because they show a slice but not usually a start-to-finish how-to and you could invest countless hours (like I did) listening to many podcasts to piece things together.

Have the extra cash to really enjoy getting to know Europe.  

I work 40 hours a week usually from 4pm -12am.

As far as rate is concerned, you can usually go about two points over the current rate (less closing costs for a seller financed deal so there is no real expense there) You need to make sure the borrower can cover that.

I also think most markets won't see anywhere close 6% cap rates (for single family homes which is what I personally invest in).The questions you get to ask are then:Is the extra 4% worth the hassle of management and lack of liquidity.   

COGO is legit, but I can beat them usually on origination points.

Before you jump into some type of mentorship (that they usually want you to pay for), I would start doing some meetups in your area with local real estate investors. 

Something many new investors don't think about is that property managers usually negotiate volume discounts for some of this stuff.

If your goal is to grow faster, buying rent ready properties isn't the usual way to do that if you have limited funds to start with.