I am looking for much stronger leverage capabilities and much larger lines of credit.

The only way you can grow your portfolio and the amount of deals you do is through leverage.

(education, experiences and ??)

While not military, I have many similar circumstances, including the constraints, as an investor.Right now I am aiming to continue educating myself, but I would like, ideally, to reach out to folks in Jacksonville, FL (and other FL areas), Alabama, and Tennessee to build teams and expand my investments. 

I have a lot of family in the real estate business, in Pittsburgh, and have been educating myself throughout the last few years, including reading many books through Bigger Pockets, such as Long Distance Real Estate Investing.

*search this site using key word "house hack"5-why wouldn't you pull the equity from your house ( or leverage your house) and just by a rental property(paid off in 15 yrs by tenants, building equity for further acquisitions, future appreciation AND sale ) where the numbers will give you a specific profit, and you can retain your anonymity and personal space as a LL?

However, we only have about 7k saved up, and would prefer not to have to use all of that on buying a house so we would probably have to leverage a first home buyers type loan and maybe a down payment assistance type loan.

If you want to leverage debt as a part of your strategies be lendable. 

Some, you have to treat them as if they were your children and just educate them, hold their hand a little bit until they get the process down packed. and if they can't then don't renew their lease/ worst case scenario evict based on failure to follow agreed upon lease/policy of the building.

Even though there's no reciprocity, some states (like NJ) will allow you to waive the educational requirements and you just have to pass the state tests.