“The book on investing in real estate with no (and low) money down” has already been so helpful and I haven’t even finished it!

Max your retirement accounts ( low cost index funds by Vanguard or similar) / buy more properties

seems high from JUST closing cost perspective on buyer or seller side (escrow+attorney+survey+prorated tax+ doc)... but again it could be very low depending on how the closing cost is being constructed (may be point or cost from both side etc) ..if you can give a breakout /pic of the closing statement then i can help 

I know my rents are on the low end from experience.

From reading The Book On Investing In Real Estate With No (And Low) Money Down will give you a lot of good information on how to get creative with funding.

Then as I become seasoned, I'm willing to ramp up the amount of capital I put at risk.Don't buy something with low cap/yield, I agree with your pointview that you have to collect money and buy something big to generate higher cap rate

Again, others might feel differently here.3) property level due diligence: (takes seconds to weeks per deal): here is where I drill in with the low-level details.a) pro forma popping: I examine all the assumptions, and see if they are overoptimistic or not.

The main reason I liked that is that the cash out was tied to the great terms of a primary home (low interest rate and 30 years amortization).

The estimate was low. 

The other, I submitted a very low offer, which was not accepted.To my knowledge, there is no way around it unless one disregards it and rents it out.