Why do you think there has been no magic solution for last years?

You learned a lot from the school of hard knocks, don't throw away your education, use it.

it's kind of like when you were in grade school and you were really good at math and your teacher would come by and say "show me your work". 

I have encouraged my High School students to listen as well. 

Plum Creek, Kyle - 1900 SF, 4 bed 2 bath, Corner lot, large backyard, great school district ratingWhisper, San Marcos - 2300 SF, 4 bed 3 bath + study room, moderate backyard, OK school district ratingThe Whisper property is about $20K higher priced.

@Nicholas MannI went to Valhalla High School a LONGGGG time ago.

If, however, that means you own more real estate in locations that you like, you get the magic of leverage + appreciation that results in a better long term return. 

I hope someone can offer me to find an investor who would be willing to have me come along just to gain experience (preferably on the weekends and over school holidays and breaks).

On the one hand, I realize I just need to let time do it's magic and enjoy appreciation and debt paydown, but I'm looking for ways to continually grow my portfolio by either acquiring more properties or finding ways to generate more income which will be used to purchase more properties.I tried using OPM but that doesn't work for me for several reasons - if I go down a loan route I can't pay it back because of my LTV cap and partnering for equity requires a lot of work in bulding trust and even then it's for a very small share of equity which is insignificant.

The other very old school option is to just knock on doors, my first apartment appraisal thats how I collected rental data on competing complexes.