This will determine not only how passive or active you want to be, but it will also will help you to determine what type of strategy you should implement to achieve your goal.

I'm looking to build a network and gather as much knowledge as possible to become as successful as possible.

I would stay open to splitting the equity as tenants in common - your first deal should be about experiencing a successful deal not having 100% ownership.

I'm diving into a potentially 100k+ rehab project in Central NJ (Bridgewater area) and would like to leverage some of your positive GC experiences to give this opportunity a high-percentage chance of success.

Not crazy overpay, but if you're offering 93% of asking price in a market where the average home sells at 98% - 103% of asking price, you're probably not going to be successful.  2.

Hey Gabriel,Great to hear some success with the BRRRR strategy especially in Indianapolis.     

My advice to you would be to put the hard money lender to one side (he isn't going to go anywhere and will more than likely be even keener to help you once he sees who successful you're going to become) and take the next 18 months to (1) Find yourself a job in finance, and (2) Find yourself a nice 4-plex to purchase/house-hack via an FHA loan. 

I would take a slightly lower return for a more passive investment.  3) the amount of riskI could take the money you would use to pay down your mortgage and place it in something very passive and somewhat low risk such as the S&P 500 long term (14 years is long term) and achieve far greater return (historically probably double) than what you will save by paying down a conventional home loan. 

Although I'm not afraid of taking risks (I do run into burning buildings, after all), they're usually taken with a lot of education, experience, and forethought.I do have a friend in the fire department who has been successful with wholesaling, flipping, and I believe rentals, too, in the Baltimore region. 

You need to have a solid financial foundation to be successful in real estate, so I would suggest working towards that goal, and then pursuing REI.