I like having the cash on hand because you never know when a great deal is going to come up and you need that cash immediately.

On the other hand, given what happened, I'm having trouble trusting them to actually get things moving right now, unfortunately.

My daily job in the Air Force is Cyber Security, which is fun and will be very lucrative in the civilian side, but I'm more of a hands-on active person (I did Interior Trim before I joined the military and loved it). 

I been reading books but have not got hands on experience yet.

the fact that you didn't ask how to wholesale, how to house hack with an FHA, etc while blatantly just saying "I don't have enough for a downpayment" ....shows youre just trying to ask for someone to hold your hand and give you the golden egg on how to make it big. and I'm only being an A hole about this because I'm close to your age and most of my friends always ask how to do real estate with 0 self-motivation and research. if you really want to make it in this industry, research  and read Everything. then ask SPECIFIC questions

If you don’t want to push the vacant at closing, you can put it back into the sellers hands Vacant at closing OR:Son of xxx provides signed lease (attached) for $xxx/mo plus $yyy security deposit at closing.

I feel that if I can’t have my “hands ON“ every aspect of the business, I can’t at least have ample amt of knowledge in every area possible so that I can stay (Knowledgeably Aware) IN Every Aspect of My Business..

Now I jacked up rents, dropped PMIs, and handed them off to a solid PM team. 

@Warren Fanaken, my opinion is a little cash in hand is always good to have.

In the instant situation I would be interested to see whether the title company's "approved" list of notaries happened to be staff on hand who make a few extra hundred $ for the title company.