Those success stories are few & far between and they "normally" don't do it as quickly as portrayed.This is not to discourage you, but to give you a dose of reality.

But my purpose for the post was to get feedback from investors who have seen success.

My business partner and I designed our own cards, printed them out and wrote handwritten notes to everyone that has positively influenced us and contributed to our success!

Yet, after listening to you it almost seems like we should be searching out other deals and getting money from private people as early as possible.Much like you I have a little experience in construction from my college days (working for a contractor on my days off from school and over summers but I'm not a craftsmen), so there is a small advantage there, but ultimately it sounds like if I want to get to that "freedom number" faster, or at least earlier, I'm going to have to figure out how to scale.I'm under no delusions that I am an expert after one deal, but I thought that after doing 2-3 deals and making them successful we would then have the creditably to get loans from others to really acquire some volume. 

Like you, I have passion for this business, but that isn’t a guarantee of success.

Here is to wishing you nothing but GR8 success in your 2017  (and beyond) REI ventures! 

Once my refi goes through I'm going to post a BP success story about it.

I have learned some much and feel that I will be successful.

I would say that most successful investors aren't pulling the trigger on a deal unless they can get really close to all their money back. 

I was curious how many other people have been successful with that.