Given your financial constraints and the property's ineligibility for historic tax credits, this approach allows for reinvestment into assets more aligned with retirement account rules.For future real estate investments, you don't need an LLC for tax reasons.

It's been great, but I'm not able to financially benefit from any of that money.

Not to mention scams are so prevalent these days, it's stressful vetting all these companies and making sure my financial info isn't getting into the wrong hands.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

Depending on your market it may not make financial sense at all.

A good real estate accountant can save you thousands of dollars by leveraging entity selection and formation, tax deductions, cost segregations, bonus depreciation and tax planning.I recommend finding an accountant who specializes in real estate taxation, business taxation, financial planning and tax planning.You may want to consider working with your accountant remotely to expand your options.I would also recommend looking for a accountant willing to work with you throughout the year.

I doubt many are going into credit card debt or if they are that's kind of crazy.. as this part of real estate has no smoke and mirrors generally.And I suspect because most of these folks are doing some sort of PPM and need to deal with accredited investors.. that separates those wanting to start to those who have already had some financial win's or experience and just looking for a new avenue.. 

Just stay flexible and be ready to adapt to market changes or your own financial situation.

Quote from @Tom Hall: My mortgage rate is very high  and I would like to pay some of it off, so that my monthly payments would go down a bit, I dont know if it is financial smart to do it or not?

@John Friendas  it's close to the 1% rule which is good, but I would still run the financials on it.