My biggest challenge right now is lack of liquid assets.One thing I'm very interested in hearing about from others is:-what was your investment strategy for rentals?

UNLESS you have a large amount of liquid assets available in the event you need them, but still the long game wins.Best of Luck.

I assume if push came to shove, your index funds could be liquidated in a few days?

More headache than is worth it for someone young and starting out with little liquid cash to float if something goes bad.3.

I have never worked with anyone as a partner, and I don't have enough liquid cash to buy the houses and fix them too.

@Josh Dillingham Seller accepted our offer but we still have 5-6k in liquid cash and we save 1700 a month in general.

I make up for it by having higher amount of liquidity and alternate income (outside of my paycheck) vs something tied up in a property that is my primary residence....1.2 is a good chunk outside of CA... you'd typically see something around 1-1.5% rents to purchase price and at the price point you'd be able to get a portfolio of multiple properties.  

However, I just purchased another property for myself and finance to reside in with no intention of renting that one out, needless to say these ventures have left me liquid cash poor at moment.

But if you sell your property now and just park your money, you will not see very good returns in any investment vehicle that is liquid and safe.You have a hold of a "golden goose" that will keep laying cash flow eggs and appreciation eggs for a long time. 

When objectives differ then it can become difficult, especially when liquidity is problematic and circumstances change over long periods of time (as pointed out by Mike Dymski).I also agree with Chris Martin’s response – rather than jump into something big, I would prefer to partner with some people, get comfortable, then scale.Legal aspects can be solved.