While his bill rate was higher, he probably saved me just as much by being more efficient and coming up with alternatives to what I was planning.

So an initial goal of 1 house a year'ish alternating between primary and rental investment. 

In most cases I would say that househacking would be the best alternative, but seconding all what is said above, I think your best move would be to sling shot into rentals. 

I briefly talked with a real estate attorney with 50 years experience about quiet title as an alternative and he seemed totally clueless about tax deeds in general.I would love to hear from someone who actually has purchased a tax deed from an Arizona County and successfully sold it with an insurable title and warranty deed.

Alternatively I've considered doing a refi on the house to pull out 100k to buy just one cash flowing condo but the cash flow I'd gain with the condo would only go to subsidizing the increased mortgage on the house and I'd be back to cash flow neutral again.In short, the house is great for the safe long game but it seems to limit what we can do to really grow in the short term.I'm very interested in what you guys think!

The key is to evaluate the investment over some reasonable period of time to fully assess the value of the asset you are holding as opposed to alternative investments. 

W2 income is the best as it generally only needs some two months of history. 1099 income, on the other hand, requires at least years of steady / averaged income.While there are plenty of pitches about how to do real estate investing without cash/income, the bottom line is itsmuch better to have the income, than have to take those alternative/riskier/creative ways to go about it.Look at it another way: why do you think it’s so important for people to get approved for a mortgage?

I am working with a turnkey company as an alternative and when I asked why they leave these out of their calculations he responded that if you take all the costs into consideration you'll never find a deal. 

I’m looking for alternative solutions.

Alternatively, and in the meantime, you can operate as a joint venture, draft a JV agreement that states the LLC will operate the property in a joint venture with you and your partners.