My plan is to be an broker part time and still keep my day job for a while until I build some momentum.

Consider it your first expense in your education and just use momentum to move forward.

Think of it this way - your situation isn't going to get any better staying where you are at, time to get some momentum going!!

There was something about putting up signs that gave me some momentum and it was a fairly inexpensive way to practice talking to sellers. 

Provo, Ogden and SLC are actually repeats on lists of cities with strong momentum with respect to price and rent increases. 

I don't want to lose the momentum on this, but I also want to try and minimize the potential for tripping and falling right at the starting line if possible.

I went from a dead stop, to full speed ahead and killing it, to slamming into a wall and losing all momentum in real estate within 3 months. 

First off, the fact that you're here on BP, asking for advice says ALOT and you definitely want to keep up that network momentum. 

Gaining momentum is critical!

I think I would have been ok with option 2 in the long run, but I'm still trying to build momentum in my fledgeling business, and there's just so much money locked away in the house that I need to keep progressing, so option 1 it is.