A larger house with a better commute to replace your current home isn't necessarily bad - and the finances you shared make it seem like an easy upgrade. 

Palm Beach REIC isn't bad but at times does have a program sales pitch. 

Not bad for flipping, but there are better markets.

Is this approach that I'm considering a bad idea?

Also some conservatism as a balance is not a bad thing either.

Accepting a large amount of rent up front is almost always a bad idea. 

lots of rabbit holes out there and what I call due diligence pump and dump scammers.. prey on mid level developers who have never gotten one of these loans.the borrower falls for the 5 to 20k up front fee to perform so called due diligence and the so called lender never closes.I have seen colleagues of mine blow through 100k looking for CHEAP money when they should have just under stood this kind of money in the Private equity world goes out at 10 to 15% apr period unless you have a local bank that will do it like I do. but even then its one project at a time and uber cautious.. they don't want to go back to the bad ole days were they ended up owning pipe farms.. and they generally will only do these with who they determine are their top tier clients.. you cannot in our market be unknown to the bank.. unless your have that monster balance sheet.but in my mind Socal is ground zero for this kind of money.. 

We at biggerpockets don’t believe in “tricking” people.. it’s what gives investors/landlords and other professionals in the RE a bad name.

Ming’s too modest and Philip is right - the Meetup is terrific and I try to go every month :) They bring in a lot of guest speakers and last month with a mortgage expert speaking about the financing changes.I think the next one is about design and construction management - right up your alley!

That is very bad information. https://www.abor.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Ap...Its odd that information is coming from realtor.com.