Assets: This will be liquid assets such as checking/savings, 401k, IRA’s, stocks, etc.

It will be a lot of work but if it allows you to buy in a year it will be a short term sacrifice.Depending on the value of your car, perhaps you could sell it and drive a junker car so that you could eliminate your car payment and use the money you were paying on the car loan towards your other debts.If you are not willing to sacrifice I would not buy in a year.

I now know the basics of investing in real estate and how to be a good well rounded agent (the only thing I have invested in is stocks and crypto currency so far). 

A very long story short...we no longer have that W2 income.

Sellers and brokers want to see short due diligence times, substantial deposits up front and perhaps an additional deposit at conclusion of due diligence.  

Most lenders require that the corporation be a “holding Company” only or “holdco” for short.

He is partially surviving on T-Bills at around 3% and some reliably paying dividend stocks, so he was receptive when I first presented him with the idea of investing in the beginnings of my would-be real estate empire.

Long story short they've dropped the ball big time and I have an empty duplex in the Waldo area that needs work done.

But holding what should, IMHO, be short-term debt would keep me up at night looking for monsters under the bed.

I moved to Clarksville, TN in 2012 (Bought our home but will sell here shortly) and chose to rent the TX property out.