But I work in Palmdale, CA and we were in the process of buying a new construction home for us to live in while I finished my career.

In my opinion you will need someone who is going to get in the trenches with you, role play conversations with you so you are ready to talk with sellers and handle their objections about your commission price, why their house isn’t a worth $20,000 More than the same model down street, and why they choose a new young agent like you and I vs a more experience agent that has sold 100s of homes in their career. 

That way when that glorious day comes in my REI career that my passive outweighs my W-2, when I'm walking out that door flipping double tall man's, I'll have a hefty chunk of self directed funds to invest with

Both were great experiences and the things you will learn and people you meet will help elevate you to the next level of your multifamily career.

Don't cut your real estate investment career short!

Hi All:Newbie to the industry with the goal of transitioning out of my current career and into the full time investor world. 

If not continue to lead by example and buy more properties and tell everyone you know about what you are doing as it relates to your RE investing career. 

This is a real concern that ordinary people--BP's target audience--have that experienced investors with a healthy diversified portfolio and significant reserves may not need to worry about as much.I don't think that using operational cashflow as the core metric on BP is an error or a misunderstanding, I think it is a conscious choice due to it being a simple and safe metric that minimizes the likelihood of newbie investors experiencing overwhelm or major loss early in their investment careers and going back to "watching dancing with the stars". 

Secondly, yeah your not building equity and your spending plenty on rent but ask yourself what’s going to make you more money, working on your career and increasing your income, or stressing out about a room or house that would increase your debt all for a measly 600$ extra a month and some equity that you could hold a lot faster if your main source of income was higher... the first response is basically saying the same thing. ..

My entire career I have just invested by cash buying single-family and small multi-family properties (3plex-6plex).