Do you know someone with a 401K from a past employer that can be turned into a self directed IRA.  

Either a "Listing Agreement" or a "Buyer Brokerage Agreement" is a fancy legal title for what amounts to an employment contract - they work, you pay.If you like your agent, but the right deal hasn't appeared, you can always renew your agreement.

He has awful credit and I can't verify his recent rental history seems sketchy self employed past 8 years not verifiable.

Killeen Tx has ONLY 1 major employer (military) that is NOT good for most investors because if something goes wrong with that employer, it will be devastating.

I feel like I should keep my REI efforts secret from my employer considering I want to quit my job someday to do REI full time. 

If they have a good rent record, (pay on time, employed, treat the property well), investors will usually grab these properties up if the ROI is good.Best of Luck!

So while the national economy has added about 12 million jobs (and Denver has added 300,000), the US population growth grew as fast as employment.

However if you are one of the many who look for long term cash flow there are many areas in the US that can accommodate.Do your research:  I look for areas for solid employment, low crime, low cost of homes with a high net rent yield.I have invested in Houston, Salt lake city, vegas, phoenix, southern california and indiana.

They're never late on rent, have perfect rental history, great credit, clean, stable employment.

Consider the liabilities that you are accepting as his employer..... driving around while on the clock, drunk, hits somebody...... gets hurt on the job, giant increase in WC premium for a long, long, long time...... damages products or materials during installation, guess who gets to pay for them and can't deduct them legally from his pay check...... you run out of work, he collects unemployment...These may be worst case situations, but they still exist and lets not forget incentives to being productive... hourly employees have little financial incentive to being productive, it basically comes down to a combination of a mixture fear of losing a job, how much they can get away with and of course their work ethic.What all this means is that unless there is huge gain for you somewhere beyond just a couple of thousand dollars over a year there is no way you will offset these issues, there would need to be some very large gains, possibly non-financial to warrant hiring this guy versus paying him as a 1099.