If my business owner bank statements did not gain me an approval, I was going to go the hard money route.

The downside will have more to do with your business personality.

This is a business.

You have a job that keeps you busy, but you want to start creating wealth through Real Estate.  

Every day is a school day in this business.

Because I'm busy doing it, lol. 

Binghamton is starting to see new business coming in too.Where I live Ithaca, NY prices are going through the roof.  

Admittedly, I am not one that typically finds paid mentorship very valuable, but I also respect that my degree is in business with a focus on real estate, and my first job out of college was in real estate (so it is a little hard for me to take my 20 yrs of knowledge and rewind it to try to view mentors from a completely fresh lens).A couple points: I view mentors, especially these expensive ones as a catch-22. 

When the whole covid shutdown occurred, I dropped out of college to help my father's service business maintaining and remodeling residential and commercial buildings.

Tax shelter schemes, partnerships with foreign partners and accounts, partnerships with hundreds of members, returns with blatant mistakes, entities in questionable businesses, like gambling, drugs, online video sales, escort services.