First off real estate is not a "job" but more of a career .you are an independent contractor, basically self employed, What you put into it you get out of it, you do not draw a wage or a salary , you are paid a commission, you get paid when a property closes. lets say you sell a property for 300,000 and the commission is 18,000.

I live and work around Independence, IA and we use NPI for a lot of our inspections as well.

You need an independent opinion on areas/neighborhoods Especially being out of state. 

I firmly believe in the BRRRR strategy and have a target to achieve my Financial Independence through practicing it.

If you are trying to do it all independently, you're going to hit another wall, which is convincing owners to work with you.

A group of grad students, nurses (you mentioned close to hospital) or seniors about to graduate will likely have more options to pay monthly and pay more than sophomores itching to get off campus and live independently for the first time.

It is a balancing act but ideally you both have the same goal, for your family to prosper financially and be financially independant.

So I aimed for financial independence/early retirement (FIRE) by indexing and risky investments. 

There is a TON of great information available on BP, such as the 4 part video series, "The Financial Independence Blueprint".

Though one minor detail is that "1099 employee" is probably not the correct terminology - one is usually either an employee (W-2) or a 1099 independent contractor.