At the end of the day, we send a follow-up email to the team where we score our productivity for the day on a scale of 1-10 and list the tasks completed.

A lot of forum members are very knowledgeable in their respective fields related to real estate investing, whether that is real estate sales, wholesaling, flipping, rentals, lending, self-directed IRA and Solo 401k investing, or tax and legal guidance.Discounts on some products and services are offered to BP members: https://www.biggerpockets.com/perks/proIf you haven’t been to it already, you might want to check out the BP blog: https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/The site has quite a few tools that can be helpful for new members.

Yes, they will be using your personal credit score and, depending on your loan product, will use a debt-to-income ratio analysis (includes your personal finances) or perhaps the property deal itself (doesn't matter what income you personally make) to determine how much they will loan you.

How are people staying productive at this time, particularly in terms of acquisitions? 

I understand this is contrary to all good real estate investing advice, but just accept I have a mental defect that will never allow me to accept borrowing money and go from there. 

Especially when starting out because you only pay interest if you are currently barrowing and only on that amount.To be clear, a HELOC (line of credit) and a HEL (fixed payment loan) are two different products with different benefits.To use a HELOC as funding for investment property can be a great tool and is one I have used a few times.

Yes, most lenders offer refi products, but you'll want to find one that works with investors and has investor friendly products. 

Also, working with a broker who specializes in working with investors will benefit you greatly as they will have advanced knowledge of coverage's/products available/relationships with their company representatives.  

I'm physically not built for it (especially all the sheets of 5/8 going on the current project to meet multi family fire codes), and I can struggle through the mud work and end up with a decent product but only after splattering it all over the floor and redoing mistakes way more times than I should have to. 

Try to find some local suppliers/distributors/dealers for the products you want and price the materials you are looking for.