After hiring a bunch of career military guys, we found they adapted to our culture about a year to a year and 1/2 after they left the service.  

I am not saying I disbelieve him but if that is in fact the case of a 30 year NPN buying career and he said he buys lots of seconds as well. and to only have 1 foreclosure and that all other notes were repositioned and paid basically each month....... that is one Hell of a track record.

I am on the way but do not want to make some of the mistakes I have made so far in my career.

@Bob Bowling I like your $16,000 starting figure, as that is the exact number I started my "investing career" (although I didn't know it at the time) back in 1994.

I have started taking real estate licencing courses at night as I am highly motivated to make a career change and I want to do everything I can to educate and prepare myself and I am very excited about real estate.

“Just looking for a rental was shocking,” Madrid said.Madrid spent her career working for the county.

Perhaps you have to move for a career, travel, have a few years where you do not have time to manage the properties.  

Assuming 70% LTV, you could probably walk with around $100k, on which your monthly payment might be around $500(this could vary kind of widely, depending on interest rate, if it's interest only, etc.)In order to justify this strategy, you'd need to be able to invest those funds at a suitable spread.

It put my RE investing career on hold for a long time after that experience.  

The more I think about it the more I don't think a LOC will actually help me.That would be more suitable if I just needed access to capital to use for down payments.So I guess I'll see if I can qualify for any of their home loan programs first.If not then I'll explore the commercial or portfolio route.If that also fails then I'll resort back to lenders I've connected with here on BP.I'd just prefer to work with a local bank or credit union I can build a long term relationship with if possible.If anyone has any other suggestions on how I should approach them please let me know.