After 6 months I used a HELOC to leverage the property to buy another rental property. 

I am getting my license so I can be more educated in real estate, get access to MLS, and be able to see properties quickly.I thought I should look for a Broker who is an investor so he/she could help guide me as I expand in the future. 

Once you're deemed credit worthy by lenders you can start using leverage which needs to be used VERY carefully but is also extremely powerful.I personally do NOT recommend that someone with a trades or self employment 'life track' as you are describing is best suited to buy a first house with cash, and for instance use your time to fix it up.Few reasons here:Firstly, often the kinds of 'cash deals' available are ones that can to generalize tend to be more cash flow type properties (as opposed to equity properties). 

Often that requires going out of state.A lot of folks I know are now getting into education and courses.

There are more meeting about doing the work than there is time spent doing the work"  I laughed and said "welcome to the next 30 years of your life"He, like many others, went to school to learn a specialty but did not know/think about how that education translates into what you do for a living and how you are going to spend the rest of your life. 

Are you leveraging creative financing for this deal, or were you looking to go a conventional route?

The education is worth as much as the profit.

There's a lot of great free education out there about SDIRAS. 

Those are all great ideas that I can now use for leverage to find a partner

These websites are also a great source to gain knowledge about so many things needed to make educated descisions.It's funny you mention Arizona, we might want to connect here on BP to exchange a few thoughts and more specific ideas and perhaps even collaborate.