I have my fingers in PM, consulting, agency, wholesaling, rehabs, sfh, mfh, and soon coming turn-key and syndication and guess what, I don't need to schlep for business, I am a rain maker just by fact of being so damn good at it for so darn long and I actually legitimate do strive to help people on here, I do believe in everything I post and reply.

I am attempting to make real estate my full time thing.

A good way to get to the decision maker is by having an all cash offer ready at a price you think will be attractive to the lender.If you are completely stonewalled by that, and don't know where else to turn, look up the REO listing agents and see what AM their listings are coming from.

Some part time agent doing a couple million in volume who is making a 50% split might not have the same empowerment to make it work either from the numbers or from their brokerI hear ya Russell but then you have a sale fail and they get nothing. also in our market the HIGHEST split in the market is a 75/25 to the broker.. 50/50 went the way of the dodo bird about 25 years ago out west LOL.. that's why a small brokerage out here is not a money maker.. lucky to break even as the owner running 50 agents.. the agents that build big teams and get that 50/50 with the new agent those guys make more than the owners of the shop  all day long.

Good contractors make real good money 

You're the deal-maker, so if your attorney is being overly adversarial, it may be up to you to tone it down and make sure things don't get out-of-hand.A good attorney will understand that, and will work with you to not "kill the deal."

@Andy welcome to BP you are going down the correct path my friend what I would suggest is that you go to at least 1 meetup a week and befriend an investor you can find the real deal makers in the back with grey hair start up a simple conversation and explain to them your goals and what you want to do help make them more successful and in turn you unlock the door to FREE Knowledge just keep at and be persistent man you will someone because older investors always like helping younger ones.

I figured a long time ago if I'm going to make money in this business I want to make real money so that means I need to do a lot of things myself.

As to your question,  I imagine I could always do a 1031 exchange in 2 years or pull from other investments if I can make RE work for me. 

That doesn't make real estate a bad investment.