It just seems like putting "all my eggs in one basket" and waiting a year to earn cash flow will delay my investment opportunities and journey.  

The bit of research I've done so far hasn't been super fruitful though, have y'all had success with HMLs in Denver?

Wait till after he has been home from work for about 30 minutes, grab a 6 pack of a non fruit flavored beer, walk over to his house knock on the door,  hand him one of those non-fruit flavored  beers, tell him you saw the foreclosure listing just you like you told us, ask whats up, let him talk. 

I don't think I'd want all my eggs in the Galveston basket though.

I've had such good fruit from my local bank partnerships that I'm a sucker for them.

I am extremely passionate about real estate and typically all of my eggs are in the real estate basket.  

They all can bear fruit.

When finding a property manager for your rental unit(s) which avenues have been fruitful and which (if any) have left you burnt?

I do however try and gift the people that had touched my project in someway, be it in advertising on who did the work on a project when I do an open house, or a small gift basket to my title companies, or thank you card and gift card to a brewery/eatery to my real estate agent. 

But regardless, real estate spits out WAY more cash than a basket of stocks ever reliably will!