There are a lot of other personal finance books that will help you reach your goal faster. 

Once I narrow down the properties that really catch my eye I call local property magement companies, they can give you a lot more information (vacancy rates, how to rent your home faster, rent prices). 

You will get a lot of people saying "NO" but once you break in, it tends to go faster.  

A preapproval from a HML or private lender doesn’t carry the weight a preapproval from a traditional lender does.But if you want to get one.....you get from the HML/private lender that has agreed to lend you money under whatever circumstances you have agreed on.

I have seen investors that can do value adds significantly faster and cheaper than I can. 

@Nicholas Kitchen as @Lance Lvovsky said a cost segregation study will help expense some parts of the property faster, but since you will most likely be limited by PAL rules you won't really be able to create losses to offset your W-2 income as @Eamonn McElroy noted. 

This would make the process (turnover) much easier/faster but I feel you then loose that experience.

While we are doing just fine relying only on cash buyers, I feel the sales and project absorption would be much faster and frankly at a higher price point if we had 25% down financing and reasonable amortizations of 20 - 25 years.

Should I pay down the 5 year note faster, to get a $500 positive cash flow on the property, so a $900 swing? 

Add to the mix cheaper and faster construction methods and you have the beginnings of a bubble.The graph below illustrates Robert Shiller’s data.