It seems like you enjoy being active and using your hands so maybe the BRRRR method (buy, rehab, rent, refinance, repeat) is your best bet as you could save some money and do plenty on your own, you could also do a live in flip potentially and sell it or rent it out later.

I'll bet my favorite Tulsa super-agent, @Tom O'Stasik, could answer your questions!

In fact I would bet not even the asset protection services who send you down these rabbit holes can and therein lies the problem...

Cash, we used a private money investor.

His Small Apartment bootcamp and Raising Private Money course are good but pricey. 

Are you only doing private money are you doing asset based/traditional as well? 

New Garage door on detached 2 car garage.My mortgage company is Citizens Bank and from looking at their rules for PMI cancelation(per google AI) they are:"Citizens Bank will automatically cancel private mortgage insurance (PMI) when your loan-to-value (LTV) ratio reaches 78%.

This seems like my best bet at the moment.

Or do they charge massive fees that private equity sponsors charge for their LP investors for buying businesses (2% management / 20% profit)? 

I am sure early on in your career you`ve made mistakes and trusted the wrong people/professionals, and I bet that didn't prove you a bad real estate professional.