They’ll respect you because they respect their relationship with the agent/manager.That said, paying someone might get you your numbers faster.

I'm starting a podcast to guide the REI community faster into accepting the tech instruments that are being developed around them.  

As you alluded to, you'll most likely get better quality tenants, which leads to faster tenant fill-in, less turnover, higher chance of rent collection, etc.

With your mortgage at such a low rate it makes no sense to pay it down faster with cash.

Phase 1 is the big picture, and it should come first.Money in your retirement account is already your money, and it is already invested in something, and it is growing in a tax-deferred environment, meaning that it grows faster.

Pros- inflation on a 1M house raises value far faster than a 100k home in a smaller home even at 3%Your broker commissions on a 1M house will also eat away much of that inflationary gain if you sell off soon.- Small Town: Your experience will all depend on a) quality of property you buy b) quality of tenants c) quality of property manager.

The faster you build equity the faster you can cash out refi and buy more!

You can pay it down faster if you want, but by stretching it out, you payments are lower. 

The people that want hope to be on a faster career track will still want to come to an office and be able to network in person with "the right people".....and those who work remotely may not necessarily want to be a VP, but will be happy to be a department head or worker bee...........which will in turn give them more time to spend more time with family and/or creating their own business or doing a side hustle.  

Also both of the rentals are under a year old, so I haven't shown income on taxes yet.So my question is this: Is there a way to keep growing this faster than just saving to buy a property cash?