Also, he can do the above deal or two or three, all day long now that he knows how to do it and has me help analyze the deal and market.This hit his personal life just right. 

The people we are dealing with are definitely not such people.

NC is a great market for your goals, however it will be challenging to find inventory that has much cash flow; many people who toss money into multifamily here do it to avoid the tax bill + take the 10 year runway of growth.How much SHF RE do you currently have?

2021 hit and that is when I became financially free and was able to retire from teaching at 55 yrs old.

I know agents can be a goldmine for finding properties before they hit the market, but I’m curious about the best ways to approach this.For fellow investors:Have you successfully partnered with agents to source off-market properties?

pretty warm right now, biggest problem is most of our inventory has been bought so we are waiting on more multifamilies to hit the market.

I would run from people like OP as an agent. 

Personally (as a STR-focused REALTOR), I would never give you numbers and tell you you can hit them. 

Just make sure you take your policy to the brokers so they can do a direct comparison.Maybe hit up your primary home insurer to see if they offer a STR policy.

For example if you sold on year 1 on a 5 year prepayment penalty, the lender would hit you with 5% of the principal balance.