But hard money is tough with buy and hold because it's so expensive.

Tough choice. 

Ottawa's a tough city to get a high cap rate in so the monthly cash flow is typically lower than desired even if looking at a pure rental.I definitely wouldn't say we make a "sh*t-ton of money" :) but we have about 3k/month left over in our budget after all of our expenses.

Vertically integrated  they have call centers they have closers that run out to the property the second they get a lead they have office staff to handle the transactions..  3. owner is sharp knows the business inside out.. and frankly would do very well at just about any business they wanted to work in.those that do this on their own with zero help.. those come and go with the wind.. failure rate I suspect is far more than 90%Along with Markets matter.. do you live and work in a market with excess inventory that can be had.. or are U in a very tight market.. tight markets are tough..

It is going to be a juggle, it is going to be tough, but keep your mind open to different types of jobs to do that allow you to make being a Realtor your top priority. 

Good property managers are tough to find and can be invaluable so I would certainly be working to connect and find out who the good managers are in that market.  

Wholesaling is a tough field.

If the financing is tough now, I can't imagine it will be easier in the future.

To simplify,  It's going to be tough to reproduce your $110k income in the first few years in  RE ( just based what i've read/ experienced)Possibly make some calls to financial advisors that are RE friendly?   

@Jacob MorrisTruthfully, it's going to be tough.