I guess what I am trying to say is if paid off, year 6 is when its the golden goose for me, if not, I have to wait til year 20.Hope that makes sense lol

I have one advice for you: if you have some capital to deploy in marketing activities to get leads and the patience to wait for over a year or even two to make money, then wholesale. 

wait, you didn't list the prosthe risks you mentioned are correct, but can be mitigated and not nearly as bad as you said. you "risking it all" isn't really correct, market drops are temporary, you can get your money back out (and more) using BRRRonly focusing on the downside is a hard way to get ahead.

Or is it best to just save the cash flow and wait for things to calm down and buy more when the opportunity is greater?

I am think about hunting down a wholesaler or two but I don't know if they'd want to wait through the 203k closing process to get paid. 

Don't wait or give a third chance- put your best people on your biggest opportunities.5.

They just write a check and wait for a return.  

College isn't for everyone and if you can get started investing without going to college and being thousands of dollars in debt, that may be a better option.  

After waiting for several months, I purchased a 2 bed / 2 bath condo in Fremont, CA for some ridiculous price at the time and with a mortgage that I could not afford and rented a room to various co-workers to cover about 50% of the mortgage. 

Not by waiting for a smoking deal because realistically if you aren't doing a lot of deals you probably wouldn't recognize a smoking deal if you saw it.