We are not struggling to pay bills, we have gotten on a budget and are able to pay decent chunks of debt off when my wife takes quarterly "bonuses" out of her business.I would like to accelerate our debt payoff and our thought is to obtain our RE licenses and work as agents part time as a "team" to accelerate our payoff with commissions and start learning more about the real estate business in the process.I know that part-time agents are a debated topic on the forums but my question is this: Has anyone done this and would be willing to share their experiences?

Because the owner had invested his bonuses wisely over the past 10 years, there was no question he had the cash to make a 40% down payment of $300,000.

I would think putting 20% down is less risky, and also that I would not need to pay PMI which is an additional bonus.

These credits are a huge bonus for you.

But rest assured that if you put in the hard work and are realistic about your expectations, and do your homework about all points mentioned here, you will reduce the number of unpleasant surprises and end up with an asset that can produce money for you in the long run (rentals) or result in a nice bonus if you end up flipping it.Good luck

They buy some periods and sell during others, have a lot of rehab going on sometimes and not other times, and have large outflows and inflows, kids get cars, go to college, spouse stops/starts working, large annual bonus payments, commissions...life and finances vary a lot. 

Chase Ink business cards have pretty good signup bonuses right now iirc. 

Make sure the numbers make sense when purchasing your first property, some people don't focus as much on cash flow and just like the idea of building equity, but I am all about the cash flow on a property and look at he equity as an added bonus.

I invested another 7k and was able to sell it on my own for $69k as a 4/2 ( converting a bonus room off the kitchen to a 4th bedroom).  

SFRs are a very strong class in Central Florida, and the Orlando Metro Area has the added bonus of sitting well above sea level (as far as Florida goes at least) at about 50 ft and well away from both coasts.