I am a state employee contributing 10% of my pre tax dollars to a 457b and I contribute 7.25% to a state retirement plan - no employer match.After a little research, I'm learning some early real estate investors with a W-2 job do not contribute to a retirement plan if there is not a company match, but instead put their money toward real estate investing. 

One of them is absolutely crushing it—she’s always hunting for leads, making calls, driving for dollars, and more.

I can’t keep track of the number of  people I come across on bigger pockets who feel the need to create entity structures more complexed than my former employer that owned a hotel portfolio valued over a billion dollars. 

So, they are missing out of 200 dollars a month for at least 4 years (and maybe longer depending on where rates are when the PPP rolls off) so that is at least 9600 in opportunity cost by taking a slightly lower rate at the beginning. 

Deduct NEW property taxes after you buyDeduct home insurance costsDeduct maintenance percentage, typically 10%Deduct vacancy+tenant nonperformance percentage(we recommend 5% for Class A, 10% Class B, 20% Class C, good luck with Class D)Deduct whatever dollar/percentage of cashflow you wantNow, what you have left over is the amount for debt service.Enter it into a mortgage calculator, with current interest rate for an investment property, to determine your maximum mortgage amount.Divide the mortgage amount by either 75% or 80%, depending on the required down payment percentage - this is your tentative price to offer.If the property needs repairs, you'll want to deduct 110%-120% of the estimated repairs from this amount.Be sure to also research the ARV and make sure it's 10-20% higher than your tentative purchase price.As long as the ARV checks out, this is the purchase price to offer.It is probably significantly below the asking price.

The truth is most methods work - cold call, direct mail, referral programs, driving for dollars, etc.

I'm not sure how the Pittsburg market is, and what type of market trend it's currently on, but I know Columbus and it's in a massive growth trend that isn't going to stop anytime soon.There are multiple billion dollar companies dumping money into the city, such as Intel, Google, Honda, and Amazon.

Im a very busy individual but I find it logical and necessary to make time to see something I have hundreds of thousands of dollars in.

Using 2023 income I suspect my debt is over $100 for each dollar of income.  

As for refinancing, it is generally possible, but evaluating the costs, including closing fees and any additional points, is key.As a side note, you are obviously concerned about interest rate, and this can make a difference of hundreds dollars per month, but I see clients with properties where the monthly lease is 2x the monthly mortgage payment.