I'm currently @ step # 6 (not including SEO). 1. 

SEO? 

No SEO gimmicks, no content farm.

A few ideas:1)You could freelance to help REI companies or individuals stand up their company websites in exchange for money and/or REI mentoring.2)You could stand up a "We buy houses for cash" type website, use some SEO and other developer tricks to drive traffic there, and use it as your primary marketing channel for lead generation.

Also important in SEO news to realize that for many results, there may be zero organic rankings above the fold.

Send out mail, use SEO, pay per click, knock doors, cold call, talk to wholesalers and brokers, the list goes on and on. 

The SEO on this site is great for agents and it will be well worth the money spent.

Investor carrot SEO is powered by a company called Generation Web, which touts that their CEO is "1 of 50 who are SEO certified" - in 10 years in the industry, I've never heard of an SEO certification - is there anyone from Investor Carrot who can fill me in on what this certification is, and who certifies the applicants?

In addition, if you find these keywords, you can create pieces of content around them (blog posts, short Youtube videos or something similar) and get some of the natural SEO benefit in addition to driving traffic through AdWords.

Don't get too hyped by companies offering SEO services.