-I have about $50,000 in unrealized capital gains sitting in my e-trade account and the stock market scares the hell out of me right now. 

With a new roof and no other preventative maintenance for large items on your calendar, you could get by with much less but the mandatory reserve requirements from lenders had been 6- 9 months in California on owner-occupied properties, and some lenders allow your non Cash ownership of Stocks or a 401 k to be considered as part of your liquid reserve requirement.

CAP RATE investors are thinking in terms of "Do I invest in stocks, bonds, real estate, buying a business, or something else?" 

Through investing in stocks and saving I have accumulated a little over $7k which I plan to invest in real estate.

If you believe in dollar cost averaging in the stock market and keep putting $ into your 401k then maybe it is a good/wise investment. 

Most places I've checked are stating 30-60 days with no guarantee that it'll be in stock.

FWIW I tried paper trading for a while to learn about trading stocks, but now that I'm investing and trading for real I can see how little real value that provided -  like learning the forms of a martial art but never actually sparring. 

Last time I saw 10% down reduced the CMHC premium dramatically so I would at least consider that at a minimumKeep in mind the interest rates are so low so is it worth to put another 10-15% down when you can put that in stocks or crypto

It's like trying to time the stock market it never works out and then you've wasted valuable time. 

Also, verify the way the policy is structured to have it maximum overfunded, where the death benefit is minimized with the maximum allowed premium going mainly to the cash value.Regarding rate of return of IUL, while appearing on the surface a little bit lower than the stock market, if you take into account the indexing feature that avoid any loss if the market crashes, you will find that it is very competitive with it.