This is clearly stressing you out, take action and don't let the PM give you any excuses.

Excuse me?

Lots of opportunity if you go look for it, don't make excuses. 

(Also, not having money is no excuse to delay when it comes to real estate investing).

Maybe you never graduate because your properties take off and real estate draws you in full time, no big deal the degree was never the goal but don't make excuses if staying is the more successful route.

Everyone from the local gov't to the contractors had a BS corrupt excuse of why the job is behind schedule. 

All the reasons/excuses I have heard and none of them make any legit sense.To end this long winded response, I will leave you with this: If you want to be a real estate investor, pick a real estate investing strategy (rehabs, buy and hold, notes, land development, etc.) that fits your abilities, likes, and goals, then learn all you can about the ins and outs of that strategy all of which require local knowledge of the marketplace and how to crunch the numbers!

Soon (but not too soon) kids will be thrown into the mix and I fear that they will just be an excuse to put off investing further and further until I get stuck in a situation where investing just won't be feasible. 

How easy or hard of an eviction is to me is just an excuse for a landlord to run their business like a doophus and hope someone else can bail them out of their bad choices like not maintaining a rent ledger, or not getting their rental license or inspection, or being a slumlord, or placing high risk tenants in their properties.

(My mistake #2).8) Investor makes BS excuse that the properties need too much rehab (By the way, the rehab that the investor doesn't do as that is our job/risk and the investor is more than welcome to do a building inspection once the rehab is completed.