Perhaps the system strategies are best in a buyers market, other states or for acquiring off market properties.  

While the borrowing costs are higher, I’m exploring strategies where the returns could offset this.

This in turn will kill your exit strategy if you are not doing your due diligence and playing conservative.

Any insights, advice, or strategies from those who’ve been in a similar position would be greatly appreciated.

Provide them proof of your ability to find, fix, flip (or whatever strategy you plan to use), and then start with small amounts of their money.

That style of learning and introduction to true industry catches my attention as having someone in the space that understands the space to bounce things off of and learn from seems to be the ideal way.I have through a handful of the webinars and follow up calls with different companies and they all basically pitch similar ideas and strategies.

If you hate the process of placing tenants, it may be worth it to hire a property manager to handle tenant placement for you.I think finding a new tenant is a better long term strategy if you're confident you can find a higher quality tenant that will cause you fewer headaches.

I realize I am not cut out for the entire REI process of consistently finding multiple properties for particular exit strategies. 

Depending on what the potential jobs offer in terms of income, does this seem like a realistic strategy?

There are often local Facebook groups for specific strategies