To be honest, this feels overwhelming, especially knowing I couldn’t pay it all off quickly if I had to.Out of that $900K, about $500K is tied to 30-year mortgages on my rentals, with interest rates ranging from 2.99% to 4.375% and 400k on primary at 6% 30 year.My total monthly mortgage payments are $5,500 on my rentals, and my long-term rental income is $6,850, giving me a monthly surplus of about $1,300.

Yep I totally get not being hung up on driving violations.  

What if the county (or city in my case) has a very low percentage for land compared to the total. 

I certainly won't hold anyone to anything, but could either of you venture a guess  as to what the actual net profit after all taxes (including cap gains, depreciation recapture, etc) would be on a 100k investment with total gross return of 193k on an income of 50k?

Still, there has to be a shared motivation to grow financially and a shared understanding of the risks involved with the particular investments you are looking at.This should be obvious, but I know from talking to investors for over 30 years that it's not.It's very difficult to be a successful real estate investor if your spouse or partner is not on board.

My total payment is $3500 (including escrow); it could rent for around $2700.

You obviously have not studied enough this asset class.By borrowing from it you can make your money work at two places at the same time, increasing your total return.

Gaining connections with agents, investors, and wholesalers for off market deals is obviously a sure way to find properties under value.

The numbers are ok for us but not obviously not as good if we were to just get the loan and use a realtor to sell when its done. 

Brandon, I totally get where you're coming from.