Telling you this as a former financial advisor.Real estate gurus/promoters are ultimately compensated either by selling you their systems or coaching programs or by hoping that you will find them a deal to partner on.

as for the $55 app fee, I market it as,"The $55 application fee will be returned to you via first month's rent" this promotes that only a tenant who believes they qualify per your rental qualifying standards will apply. 

My girlfriend and I have just started corporate jobs at high salaries and would like to be a part of the FIRE movement.We've been interviewing financial advisors and all the ones we've interviewed look down upon real estate as a viable long-term investment strategy and choose to promote stocks and bonds instead.Can anyone recommend a good financial advisor or financial services company in Houston that is pro real estate?

Promotional disclosure - I am in the business of selling professional services to real estate investors like yourself and completely understand it is not an easy task to find a trusted advisor to bring on as a team member. 

I just signed up, but was wondering if that course provides you with enough tools and info to have the confidence to all in without having to do their mentoring course, which I'm sure they promote when you attend the 3 day course right? 

Anyone who is selling you something is going to be interested in promoting what they are selling, regardless of how good, bad, or indifferent it is.

I have no problem with that.Forgive me if I am mistaken, but it is my understanding that the responsibility  of a forum moderator  is to encourage  participants,  promote learning  and understanding,  to prevent inappropriate  or abusive content.In this case he fell short of those objectives  and I called him on it. 

While I understand that logic behind "fees incentivizes the provider to promote high turnover" it's actually the opposite.

Note; I'm not promoting that option.  

I like your idea of posting good deals on here, however as I understand it, as a Realtor, I am actually not allowed to post those on the forum as the moderators consider this self-promotion, I had a similar post deleted before because of that reason.