While this is a great and highly motivating goal, most people are either clueless or incorrect in their belief as to what is required to obtain this “lifestyle”.Understanding of the “how to” get there is further obscured by the misleading, and often patently false “pathways” sold by real estate educational MARKETING companies as workshops, upsold to association memberships, upsold to mentorships.

Yes this is possible.Go check with your original lender on the first property if you had one. 

I would also invest in a handful of Syndications that are steady and boring as opposed to the flashy ones.

You would have to go after the one individual for non-payment and you could only remove the other three by going through the legal process like you would for someone on a verbal agreement, which puts you in a he-said, she-said situation. 

Today we basically run two businesses, one in REI and one is a brokerage team.

Which reminds me that I should mention that I’m not opposed to living a not-so-luxurious lifestyle in the short run.

I would pick a market area you like and start doing a bunch of deep dive deal analysis, but from a rental and not a life style standpoint.  

If you live paycheck to paycheck and do all this you are never going to become an investor because you aren't willing to change your lifestyle now for something you can have in a few years.  

As PMs, 20% of our portfolios take up 80% of our time. A few clients or properties can suck up all of our time and attention and ultimately, prevent us from taking on more business. Our end goal is to be in a position...

Quote from @Erick Pena: A "good" rental property is one that covers all expenses (mortgage, taxes, insurance, maintenance, property management fees, and any other costs) and still leave a surplus (commonly referred to as cash flow).Calculate cash flow as: Cash Flow = Rental Income − Operating Expenses − DebtThere's much more to it, but that's the basic idea.