That's how you scale it, just put all your extra income into marketing and it will be fully tax deductible (it's your expenses after all).

I'm wondering if it would be an option in my situation to do a blanket loan for scaling.

If you are working your first job and don't want to work the 9 to 5, your scale to have savings to invest is going to be very limited.

We use a national supply house for everything and do mostly builder grade with upgrades where they need to be at.

Build your connections of handyman and realtors and lenders and try to have a plan to scale in next 3 years

I have full civil and architectural plans and the city has already given me a grading permit.

However after switching around to a couple when my team got started as we scaled to 80+ guesty was the clear winner.  

Paying down debt destroys our ability to scale.

You should have a conversation with them if that is something that interests them.If you will manage the properties and you have the properties across different areas/schools, there is little scaling and you would need to look for multiple connects(contractors, vendors, etc)Best of luck.

The key is to have a detailed scope of work itemizing the materials and grade of materials to ensure that the contractor will complete the job for the original agreed amount.