Here are a few I recommend: "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Roberto Kiyosaki; "Set for Life" by Scott Trench; "The Unofficial Guide to Real Estate Investing" by Spencer; "The BiggerPockets Ultimate Beginners Guide" found here on BP; "The Book on Rental Property Investing" by Brandon Tuner.

Ultimately, my dream is to achieve financial independence and free myself from a 9-5, build generational wealth and allow myself more time with my little ones.

Start with BiggerPockets Ultimate Beginners Guide (free).

Here are a few I recommend: "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Roberto Kiyosaki; "Set for Life" by Scott Trench; "The Unofficial Guide to Real Estate Investing" by Spencer; "The BiggerPockets Ultimate Beginners Guide" found here on BP; "The Book on Rental Property Investing" by Brandon Tuner.

See here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/smarterA good place to start is with the free guides, such as "The Ultimate Beginner's Guide To Real Estate Investing".

My goals are to learn from everyone here on a daily basis, improve my business/referral network (I’m a realtor), connect with other members in my area who may want to partner or benefit from each other’s skill sets, & ultimately become one of the many successful investors that I’ve read about.

Ultimately you are responsible for your business so do your own research on everything and confirm what your being told.

If they agree you would support them in that, but ultimately will rely on their experience for how to handle this.

I ultimately decided that it was better to reevaluate after a year of saving and I'm now in a significantly better position to restart the process.

Hi Michael, this depends on which lender you ultimately choose to use.