Landlords tell themselves it's "guaranteed rent" but that's not true and a lot of the tenants come with "guaranteed entitlement" or "guaranteed turnover costs" that will cost you more than any increased earnings.Some people do very well with Section 8.

Find out everyone's true feelings and where they might end up.

As you say, the concept is great and true, but the proper application in practice may not be as advertised.

this is old  tried and true method of simply having you pay them to get credit cards .. there is no need to pay for this service.. unless you want to of course.. there is no magic bullet ut there that is going to give you credit and financing unless you actually qualify for it.But zero interest credit cards are used by some to do rehab and then pay them off issue is though your fico score drops like a rock the second you take on all these CC.Also starting out there is zero chance of getting any kind of business line of Credit that is unsecured.

My biggest advice is to start investing where you have a good network of people you know like and trust...this especially holds true if you will be investing out of state.While it's not impossible to go straight to the commerical I personally found it easier to start in the residential world and then make my way over to commerical multi-family. 

This is all true except the no expenses or depreciation part, you actually can do that in an IRA (just doesn't help you personally today) on leveraged real estate because that portion of the income is subject to UDFI/UBIT tax which is calculated after deducting the first $1000 and accounting for depreciation and expenses as it relates to the % of the mortgage. 

If that is true, many will have already booked their annual trip, and I don’t know that booking window.

It’s true you will net profits and can then reinvest them into something that cash flows better if you want to.

This setup helps us reduce our mortgage each month and makes our home work as a true investment.

That is, @Bill B. is correct.While true that it’s harder to find P/HMLs willing to lend in second position than first, it’s also true that many of these will only lend behind a large conventional lender, such as a bank.