You have spent several years hoping the locality and booming economy will bring you to richness. 

-The ABC's of RE Investing-David Lindahl's: Multi-Family Millions, Emerging RE Markets, Apartment Houses Rich Course-Steve Burges: Complete Guide to Buying and Selling ApartmentsAny endorsements or suggestions beyond this list would be greatly appreciated. 

Here are some I would recommend (presuming you're looking to do buy and hold rentals):Personal Development: The Science of Getting Rich, Miracle Morning, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Be Obsessed or Be AverageBusiness: The E-Myth, The Millionaire Fastlane, Good to Great, TractionReal Estate: The Millionaire Real Estate Investor, The Advanced Guide to Real Estate Investing,Finding and Funding Great Deals, The Book on Negotiating Real EstateI've also heard good things about How I Turned $1,000 into Five Million in Real Estate in My Spare Time and bought it but have yet to read it (as I'm not in rentals).

Just note a few of the brands theirs is aligned with – Rich Dad, Peter Schiff, G.

Just be aware the courts view this as a situation of a "rich landlord" taking advantage of a "poor renter".

Thanks Rich

I would focus on repairing your credit. see a specialist (faster) or open credit cards little by little and pay them off each month. im not saying increase your spending, just saying instead of buying that tank of gas in cash use a cc and immediately pay it off. while your credit is repairing, start banking cash. build a budget and stick to it. 80K a year is good money, make it a goal of yours to retain as much of it as possible i.e. don't eat out, don't go to the local pub, drive a modest paid off car etc. once your credit is up and savings is up, use the 80k a year plus savings to get leverage. then use that leverage to buy your properties. if your looking for a get rich quick scheme, id advise u skip over RE. don't get me wrong, you can make money fast by flipping homes but you didn't mention having experience in that area so I assume you don't. another option if your really in a hurry is to find a partner with experience and cash, and see if you can buy into one of his/hers deals. you would have to market yourself for this and see what type of skills they may need that you have. maybe you can buy in and use your web development skills to beef up and/or maintain your partners website saving them money on outsourcing. that might be your ticket into a partnership. since you mentioned your helping your friend, maybe you can partner with him?

Unfortunately no investor gets rich.

Haven't attended the rich dad poor dad, but I did take another one through Steve Martel. 

I would like to echo others about Cozy I really enjoy their system and they are truly continuing to make their product more feature rich.