Reach out to individuals to determine the right fit, as the best mentor should balance support with decision-making.Good luck!

Held in my property entity that I purposely keep a low balance and doesn’t show a lot of income.

You could also put 25% down and buy down the interest rate to achieve the same.

Our loan balance is $640k (rolled a HELOC that we used to buy a triplex into the primary mortgage back in 2020) on a 30-year fixed @ 2.85%.

If I bring on an agent who does not join, I get billed for it and all my agents memberships gets suspended if the balance is past due.  

Let time do it's thing over 5-10 years, you can take advantage of the tax benefits in the meantime then 1031 exchange into lower cost, higher yielding markets to achieve those goals.Great thing abotu real estate is if you have the capital you have options and options are always good.

Without knowing the balance on the first, I wouldn’t touch it at at the auction.

When you are on the commercial side of the bank, and borrowing on the bank's balance sheet, they have a lot more flexibility to how they handle loans.  

The vast majority of "regular" or traditional (Conv/Govt) mortgages are originated by specialty lenders and brokers and are sold in the secondary market to provide yield on bank balance sheets (think Chase or BoA) or to be securitized into MBS.

Balance (compromise) and communication are key in situations like this.