My goal is to continue to grow our rental property portfolio so my wife and I can retire early, travel and spend time with our family.

With a 529, there's no guarantee your money will grow, and you could actually lose money.

You can literally be a middle school school dropout, turn 21, and the next day be a Big Bank loan officer without ever passing a single test.But for Local Lenders with flexibility, we face a LOT of hurdles just to add a single additional state or even maintain our own...Think of that whenever you read "lending in all 50 states!"

If you ever have any specific SF-related questions, I and several others on this site would be happy to help.

Sounds to me like you need to start by wholesaling properties, is the easiest and cheapest way for you to start making a living and grow some cash reserves, find a local wholesaler that is willing to mentor you and learn as much as you can.

Funny thing is- almost all of the talk on BP is about cash flow- don't get me wrong, cash flow is great, but equity is what allows the "average" person to leverage and grow and truly become wealthy. 

Other details...I checked the foundation walls as much as possible and did not see any cracks what so ever.

@Vincent BuggsHave you ever considered investing your retirement funds directly in real estate--meaning that your retirement account would own the property?

Learning and growing is good but when people get in over there head thats when the big problems happen.

Where are some of the growing markets?