I dabble in stocks atm but I have heard great stories of achieving FI through Real estate.

Account Closed  I'm working on my motivated sellers list and will be sending out a direct mail campaign very soon.

I believe in setting goals, so for my real estate venture,  I want to achieve a level of success where the properties I have are generating enough income to leave the "9 to 5" behind, and provide a value of at least $10,000,000.

Very motivating.

Certainly got my motivation a bit more fired up!

Now that I've essentially achieved my goals, I'm ready to get back into the real estate game as I sell my current home and pull out my equity which would give me plenty to throw down a few down payments.  

It's the agents way of saying that there is something so screwed up with the house that no institutional lender will lend on it, or the seller is motivated primarily by speed.Regardless, you will want an inspection to look for this screwed up thing and solid estimates for repair cost. 

This helps achieve the ends while mitigating the initial costs of doing so.

You also wouldn't qualify for FHA if you weren't willing to live in one of the units.As @Jonathan Gregori mentioned, creative financing is another option with a lot more flexibility.One last thing, if your strategy is aiming for cashflow, then it may be difficult to achieve with a 4-5 unit property for $400k+ in the Sacramento area with <20% down.I wish you the best as you start taking action!

That's a more achievable goal.