You don't have to be a contractor but it will save you a good chunk of money. 

Getting one property and cashflowing it will be a challenge. you can try seller financing but you are still going to be highly levered which just enhances the risk that you are taking on.The best way to grow is to focus on managing your rental, saving money through your W2 and crushing that - if you are a realtor you will make more crushing it as being a realtor than over leveraging real estate - then save for down payment and buy slowly. its not a rush.

Eliminate debt, establish a budget, and save.

In fact, a couple of recent studies have shown that working with a broker typically saves about $10,000 on a residential mortgage.

The only other option I see is a short sale, if you don't need to purchase for a few years and don't mind a temporary credit hit to save the $60k.  

As a one-stop shop for mortgage, real estate, and property management, we save our clients money while streamlining the process.

The license doesn't cost more, the service and quality does.And a note on that cost, in my experience hiring contractors, only a small percentage of the cost savings was due to finding the right guy who is willing to work for less.

Another reason to not like a PM is that there is no incentive for them to save you money.

This allows us to save time for you as a resident and save money for the owner of the property. 

My goal is 25 doors in 5 years, my struggle right now is deciding to either go back to work and save up money to continue or come up with a way to leverage financing to stay afloat myself and stick with it, waking up everyday 100% dedicated to my real estate.