I'm hoping to get there faster by putting more towards the principle every chance I get.

(Raiders) I can also show you a chart that says if you invested in the stock market in 2002 for 5 years or 2009 for 5 years you'd be very rich.  

IE areas were markets got hammered is prime and areas with Ghettos and old housing stock that is in decline and or areas that are simply not growing and not in high demand   are all prime wholesale markets...

In this regard, I am no different than a financial adviser, who is allowing you to treat your asset like a stock, and you can get great returns. 

Investors buy notes at a discount from the current principle balance and then collect the payments.

I have been investing for over 8 yrs and all I have heard was not to, but if you do not invest in real estate what do you invest in the stock market, or your 401k so that they can take that from under you.

.- FHA 1-4 unit owner occupied, needs 2 years tax returns and 2 years in the business so you'll probably need till 2 years of returns are available or above with conventional loan programs - DSCR loans wont care about your SE or self employed income since its qualifying purely based off market rents, your reserves in cash/stock/savings, and fico scores- HML or hard money lenders - are ABL or asset based lenders so they dont care about your credit or income just liquidity/reserves/cash/savings/stock + the property in question- fix/flip lenders (HML above with more items) usually care only about min fico scores, the ARV value, the as-is value generally these need a BPO (broker price opinion) or appraisal in order to finance.

I'd like to have access to the cash for possible real estate investment, more of a cushion in savings (at ~2%), to invest in stocks, pay for college (in 12+ years), etc....  

Run your business using the principles ascribed on BP and, if ish hits the fan, have alternate means to weather the storm. 

I plan to take stock of those communities, and avoid them permanently going forward, at least for rentals.