You need an income that meets three requirements:Rents increase faster than inflation to offset constantly rising prices.It must be reliable; it continues even during economic downturns.It must last throughout your lifetime.These are all long-term requirements, so the current interest rates are not the major issue.

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. 

For the first 4 loans or so, lenders are going to be less aggressive (requiring more down) than if you have several under your belt.

Most lenders won't require an application fee and should be able to clearly lay out their financing costs, cash to close, and projected profitability for you.I hope this helps.

Given the competitive market at the time, every property was receiving multiple offers, and securing a deal required both strategy and speed.

If you want to close with cash, it sounds like youre going to have to liquidate your collateral or borrow against it, which will likely be more expensive that a mortgage.

Would you be better off selling and purchasing a less expensive property that would require less carry should it become vacant for some period of time?

. - PM provides a cash based accounting report every month, for every unit under management, that clearly labels all rent, all expenses, including management fees, and the net directly ties to the amount of money deposited into my bank account.- PM is a licensed handyman, or has them on staff, and takes care of most unit turn work at a reasonable rate. - PM has no breakup/termination fee- PM does not take project management fees, except on large or complicated CapEx projects exceeding $5,000. 

My contract with my property managers requires my approval for any expense over $500.

Above are just hypotheticals, but they bring to light the point, which is, evaluating opportunities requires apples to apples comparisons.