You have a goal and you are committed to achieving it no matter what it takes.

@Roy N. or @Julie Toh , I would be curios to know if you've ever heard of any Canadians achieving no money down using "creative" financing?

The answer to that question may depend on what you are trying to achieve. 

At an appropriate point re-fi a package into a commercial loan which will achieve your lowest cost of funds. 

There are a myriad of ways to set that up to achieve your - and your investor's goals. 

What’s the single greatest thing that helped you achieve this?

Really, I think you should consider how you'll learn best and which route helps you to achieve your goals and go that direction.Regardless of where you learn, you'll need to get educated and work hard, and you'll need to have a support team around you, so learn, network, and grow into a real estate investor.

What is the reasonable rate that capital can be deployed into a major market and achieve 20-30% rates of return on cash?

The power of setting intentions is real and setting small simple goals (habits) help to structure the path to achieving much bigger goals.  

Work extra jobs if needed to achieve the savings goals you have for yourself while your living expenses are low.