One word of caution ... statistically speaking, buildings with more than 5 units and less than 20 units have the highest default rate in the industry.

Agents are independent contractors.

My wife and I earn blue collar money, we needed a platform we could leverage to create the cash flow to fund our dream of becoming independently wealthy.

Independent advisors are generally thought to have an advantage because they can recommend anything, they are not locked into "the family"... also if they are CFP will/should be able to give a more holistic template of advice beyond specifically what's in your account with them, so gold, insurance needs, retirement/estate planning, business continuity and/or real estate for example.They tend to be very risk adverse even if you want the riskiest investments most will still be putting you in funds/etfs. 

Overall, my goal is to achieve financial independence through the ownership of multiple rental and commercial properties.

@Armando Rodriguez I also second KW, though each office is independently owned and has a different feel.

Any income that is variable such as your money you make running your own business, independent contracting work or commission based income of any sort is going to require 2 years of tax returns before a lender will consider it as part of your DTI.

I first discovered the idea of passive income, financial independence, yada yada yada, a while ago, and have just been overwhelmed by the vast quantity of free information on the internet and in the books at my local library.

On the other hand, we could afford to buy a 24 unit as an Independent Rental Owner (IRO). 

I switched over to an independent insurance broker/agent who got me setup through Travelers (while I moved over all of my other policies away from GEICO as a requirement of obtaining the umbrella) and they do not have similar limits on number of rentals.