We took very little cash to, and have no debt in Memphis and have snowballed cash flow into a nice portfolio.

From what I've found CU's don't like them because their risk of you walking on some non-owner occ debt is greater.

Because of my W2 and lack of debt outside of real estate, the approval process was easy and straight forward.  

With commercial financing you can expect the lender to qualify you based on credit score and personal debt to income rate, and cash flow of the property.

He had no family and 0 debts.

Money in the bank is important, so are IRAs, college-funds, diversification, paying down debt, etc.

You can argue that IRAs and 401ks are tax deferred but why defer taxes when with real estate you can basically eliminate them? 

His point is clear though, if you have the risk tolerance, you can be financially free long before you can be debt free if you employ intelligent leverage.

If there is a similar piece of land that you do not own then you could structure an exchange to fund both the lot purchase and the construction costs.You've hit on the conventional way to defer and possibly eliminate those taxes - the 1031. 

There are cancellation of debt rules but we won’t go there because I assume you won’t default on your loan.