Those in themselves are great education.Degrees won’t help you much unless you are trying to get a job at a large fund.

For active investments I advocate considering how you can diversify WITHOUT ceding your competitive advantage nor the superior profitability of the niche your in.As an example my business is running an investment fund and syndication high interest commercial mortgage loans secured by income producing real estate. 

I don't think rent to retirement can vet a deal any better than anyone else or you, they just have a bit of a system. but the new builds in Lehigh acres, Cape Coral, north port, etc are all garbage. septic systems, poor economics, low rent to purchase price ratios, you are banking on appreciation and buying at market. building direct is going to give you a competitive advantage on a 3 unit let's say worth 600,000 you are going to be 120k ahead than if you bought it through them. that's my analysis. if you are super lazy and too busy to make money and have millions to throw around then I'd recommend not thinking much about investing. but you can also invest in funds and be way omre passive than buying a new build from far away. but if you want to add real value then get involved and make it happen. getting wealthy isn't easy. you work hard for your money and there are build to rent developers like us that try to answer and add value to start buiding relationshipsl

Doing real estate and managing other peoples money from a fund are two very distinct skillsets.

For a BRRRR if you are using debt most people will use some sort of hard money to purchase and a construction loan to fund rehab (unless you use cash).

Hopefully in just a few years the cash flow can help fund your Primary rehab and enlargement.

Alternatively, if the bank ( assuming there is a bank) is fine with it, you could negotiate a credit and escrow the funds to be released after you do it yourself.  

Is it their credit score, their track record with loans, or the investment they’re trying to fund?

The smaller more nimble banks such as state chartered or regional banks are better able to service you.If the LLC that owns the property is part of a legitimate business, is profitable, then you stand a good chance of securing some kind of funding.

If you planned on moving out of a house and buy another property, as an example, you could pull a HELOC before you moved out and keep it as an emergency fund.