I am looking for straight facts and a strategic way to go about this process. 

Focus on quality assets that have been mismanaged that have upsides in rents through strategic capex rather than the highest cap rate or GRM.

With strategic purchases you can have immediate cashflow in excess of your expenses once your tenant moves in. 

I plan on working with local investors as my niche while i learn the ropes while i strategize my own investment plans.

I know that paying down debt has to be done in a strategic way too so it doesn't backfire and negatively affect my credit (like paying off loans with a lump sum.)

The coordinators are expected to have both technical and strategic skills, the ability to work under pressure, and the capacity to adjust to rapidly changing conditions.

What if we could channel that ability to "strategically un-focus"?  

Your strategic questions to get answered first are:1) do you prefer to invest for cash flow purposes or appreciation (or a mix) (and what numbers do you like to achieve?

@Jim Groves, I should clarify that when I said "now is the time to buy", I meant for private equity firms buying entire REITs (which is the latest trend: https://www.reit.com/news/articles/blackstone-purchase-strategic-hotels-6-billion ).

Because of the cash flow misunderstand I very briefly lined out before and because of loan issues that pop up after about 5 homes -- it takes a lot of work and time to get the cash flow to really think about retiring.It's not impossible, but you have to know that you want to do it and get strategic about it.