There are still institutional investors that will do this, not necessarily private investors, so the rates aren't HORRENDOUS (you can find things in the 5-7% range)... but yes, I hear you, a higher rate does add up. 

I am just starting out and have heard from a few people that it would be smart to get your real estate agents license so you can learn the area and the laws more in-depth when starting as well as possibly make some money on commissions or save yourself some money when buying.My question is, what vehicle or institution do you guys recommend getting the 63 hours of approved pre-licensing instruction?

Our stated criteria (we are intentionally vague since we don't charge screening fees, we prefer a wider applicant pool to choose from):Our Criteria:We do not deny housing for race, color, religion, sex, national origin, handicap, sexual orientation, marital status, or familial status.We do deny housing to individuals: when the application is not complete or accurate where there is not sufficient income/resources to pay rent and live (2x rent)where there is poor prior tenancy: evictions, violations, damage to rental property, poorly handled move outs, amounts are still owing to landlords or utilities.

@Jo Weiss, there a few national credit unions that do HELOCs on investment properties: Pen Fed & Navy Federal.

P.s. the property is owned fee simple with an institutional loan still attached.

Both from national small lenders that I had not heard of.

This article had me more alarmed than othershttps://ad-venturing.com/2019/03/26/housing-growth-hits-a-brick-wall/They have a graph/picture in the article that show National home sales down 8.2% so far in Feb. 

The HML I'm thinking of that charges this has not only closed vastly more loans per originator since a GFD was instituted but has hired more loan processors to keep up with the inflow of loan requests.

If you have to make sure the janitors show up, the drywallers do good work and are negotiating leases with national tenants you may be selling yourself short if you charge a flat fee based solely on rent and NNN charges. 

Because I don’t want to invest 100% of the $800,000 in real estate, I am thinking of keeping:10% ($80,000) in savings10% ($80,000) in bonds 30% ($240,000) with financial institutions to invest in mutual funds, index funds, and stocks, And the remaining 50% ($400,000) in real estate.My goal is to allocate $200,000 of this $400,000 to acquire a combination of SFR, BRRRR properties and possibly duplex/triplexes throughout the next year or two.