He could make a better living doing and have a better quality of life working in another state but insists on staying so he can be discovered and it's stifling his ability to get ahead in life.

The feeling you get when you are financially free is amazing because YOU get to decide the life you want and it is no longer dictated by debt and bills.So get back out there as tomorrow is a brand new day and there are more new properties hitting markets across the country to review and look at. 

I'd love to reinvest all the money I have in there, but it would cut my pro forma cash flow by 2/3 and give me almost no buffer if I needed to drop rents at any point over the life of the mortgage.

He wants to put his $200k profit down on a huge fancy home (to make his wife happy, I’m sure) and pay a mortgage while working a 9-5 the rest of his life.

They also prefer that you remain in the NACA purchased home for the life of the loan.

Which is a shame in itself, but everyone had a different situation in life. 

It has been life changing for me, now I have enough equity to invest and almost ready to make my first investment purchase.

Trying to find Rockstar agents, lenders, contractors, and property managers to get my invest life off the ground.

that is awesome mate getting into the game this early in life is an adventage on its own mate. to help answer your questions?

I've been interested in real estate investing for several years, but didn't want to take the leap until life had settled down a bit (getting married, transitioning out of the Marine Corps, etc).