Just make sure to make smart bets and continue to learn as much as you can.

If I predict the crash is coming, I would bet both stock market and bitcoin would crash before housing market crash, because both stock market and bitcoin are much much crazier than housing market.

This way they could carry the note for a short time, and then get a balloon; In a sense, they would kind of be like a private lender, getting interest only payments, until the refinance occurs. 

How will you be paying your private lenders since there will be no rent collected?  

You can't magically buy something at a 9 cap and then recapitalize with private investors at a 7 cap.

It took me 6 months to build my private practice.

I come up with enough money for the down payment on the property via the private loan.

Yet, after listening to you it almost seems like we should be searching out other deals and getting money from private people as early as possible.Much like you I have a little experience in construction from my college days (working for a contractor on my days off from school and over summers but I'm not a craftsmen), so there is a small advantage there, but ultimately it sounds like if I want to get to that "freedom number" faster, or at least earlier, I'm going to have to figure out how to scale.I'm under no delusions that I am an expert after one deal, but I thought that after doing 2-3 deals and making them successful we would then have the creditably to get loans from others to really acquire some volume. 

The only time you are really paying your realtor is if its a FSBO (For Sale By Owner) or a private deal, and you are bringing in a realtor to represent you.

Can you use a private lender to purchase properties at the court house during auctions?