Of course, I had learned to play by the rules a little better by then. :)

hold some of that initial 100,000$ for reserves. if you spend it all and something goes wrong you wont have time to accumulate profit the first year to really afford to fix anything. then you'd be dependent on personal income or another loan to fix the issue if one arose. play it slow and safe at first while you figure out the game and take some initial hard knocks that are bound to come. 

Having two solid paid off investments is more than enough, and I'd argue that it is even a better play for most people than continuing to scale and scale for the sake of scaling.  

The condo proceeds from the HELOC used as a down payment will not be taxed.The tax will come into play when the condo is sold.

Sure the million dollar suburbs are nice if you have that kind of money and are playing the larger appreciation game but dollar for dollar pound for pound when it comes down to rent to value ratio its difficult to find the same kind of cash on cash returns section 8 rental properties offer in Detroit.

Good opportunities, early stage opportunities, may not have the best online presence, but be otherwise legitimate.Also IRR is a vanity metric, it's the wrong measurement.

There are a TON of online communities as well, and perhaps those groups online have some individuals not too far away from you.Hope this helps!

I can't seem to find them online.

You wont find anything online about us (yet!)

You are WAY too eager to leave your job for investing when investing takes years to deliver a return comparable to your job unless you have a bank vault of money to play with.