Now only if you had your real estate license or a investor friendly broker who didn't want to take all your hard earned profit!

Couple reasons:1) More limited financing options.2) More limited use and structure for the deals.3) Finally, if you have to inject extra cash into the property for whatever reason (manage an economic downturn or natural disaster, for instance), it's going to be trickier using an SDIRA.Syndications and private lending protect you from much of the property management nuance.

Then, rent that first home and use the rent money to pay extra on the principal of the second that we just purchase.

I lost a ton of money but learned a lot.What I would have done was purchase a multi-family property to lower my living expenses and even earn income.

We take any extra cash flow and move it to savings, so the checking account never has a super large balance.

In Plymouth County if you earn less the $139.5K, you can qualify for a MassHousing mortgage. 

I was really bummed out to hear this because im not sure I can afford the extra 2k (looks like im eating ramen noodles for the next couple months). 

I'll put about $8k into some low expense ETF's to hopefully earn a little interest but more importantly be usable as an emergency fund for the rental. 

Not sure that’s worth the extra headache of dealing with tenants

Just extra paperwork since its a considered a high cost loan.