Perhaps you could consider hard money in addition to private money?

If you are having trouble sourcing either over a years-long period I agree selling makes the most sense.

I don’t want the property to appraise low and not have enough money to get when I cash out.

You could also try looking up money judgements filed against local businesses at the magistrate level and target them with direct mail or driving for dollars. 

I was on BP Money Episode 325:  https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/money-325For some reason the signatures in the Forum seem to assign random podcast numbers to past guests, I’ve noticed this with other people as well.

My conversion rate was higher because they kind of look like a wedding invite.In regard to lenders, join meetups and local facebook groups and ask for referrals.I’m doing larger commercial deals now and found I wasted a Ton of money on direct mail.

He has been saving his money for years and has plenty of money saved but no experience with real estate investing.

The great thing about living in a high cost of living area is that your salary / wages are hopefully also very high.If you are a new college grad, I would focus the next 1-3 years on increasing your salary as much as possible(gain new skills, new certifications, change employers, etc).Once you make more money, you can easily get in a position to buy a property on a more frequent basis.Best of luck!

I didn't understand why I could not get my money out of a free and clear asset. 

If you make good money doing that, do it again a year or two later.