@Fiona Layne-GerminBeginner-friendly strategies for building long-term wealth include house hacking, buy and hold rentals, BRRRR Method, real estate syndicatations, rent-by-the-room strategy, short-term or mid-term rentals, and partnering with experienced investors.

But, you get the piece of mind knowing it’s likely done correctly.

However, I know that I do not want all my income to be reliant on my day job and live to watch my retirement account grow.I am probably doing better than a lot of people my age but am eager to take the correct steps to build a real estate portfolio.

Playing the long game, it's not for those chasing rainbows, definently for the LT planned methodical focus. 

A "pre-approval" sounds like a "consumer" mortgage rather than a commercial loan for investment real estate, is that correct?

I have kept track of all my expenses in an excel sheet/word document but feel like there may be a more organized and efficient method to tracking?

It's called the Asset Island method, long used by HNW persons to great effect. 

- What are some methods for projecting cash flow from home sales and determining an appropriate discounted cash flow (DCF) rate?

Build-4-Rent, like any good strategy, is far more complex and specific in it's CORRECT enactment and execution than how far too many perceive it on the surface. 

Are there also groups within LinkedIn that I could join or is there some other method of finding investors on LinkedIn?