I don't want to get distracted by what seems like the "right thing to do", when I could be making much more and building my career in real estate faster.

If everything goes right, the HML has less headaches and probably cheaper and faster reno execution. 

I put fuel on the fire by earning extra income driving for DoorDash and Bite Squad so since March, I've been able save about $4000 per month. 

I managed to get in touch with an owner who just closed with someone faster - I was a bit deflated, but was still pretty energized with the news.

In addition, the individual lending you money also makes a great return on their money and does so much faster than traditional methods all while being secured by real assets.

I feel like this technique has really helped me get through more books faster and allows me to manifest the information in 2 different contexts.

My other option is to get a HELOC, which I've been told is a much faster process plus no appraisal.

Learning from the trades will make your estimating faster and more accurate and when you hire your own contractors you can dictate to them a fair price instead of the other way around.It is also a great idea to start by getting a job and saving money for your first project.

My counter would be that you would get to your desired cashflow faster by leveraging the equity (or by deploying the cash into new properties instead of paying off the loan early). 

But quickly learned that reality was changing faster than we had ever seen.