This deal would not have made sense for an investor, but the experience was worth its weight in gold as a house hacker.

I left my full time job in 2017 to pursue an education to make more money and move along faster in real estate.

For those of you who have experience in smaller towns or lower rents do you recommend staying closer to the city where houses will appreciate faster and rents will be higher but will use up all my savings or go outside the city where houses will be cheaper and I can keep some of my savings but rents will be lower and maybe houses will not appreciate as fast?   

Even better, the item you didn't put on your list grows your income faster than many of the options you have listed. 

Only homes that are offensively overpriced are sitting any length of time.And yet there are still distressed sellers whose homes are in no condition to list, or who need a solution faster than a real estate agent and a buyer who needs a loan can work.

Just pay it down faster if that is what you are wanting to do.  

Your credit union may be able to do one of these lines faster than the full construction mortgage that you have already tried. 

For Portland, I was thinking protlandmaps DOT com.They have a better graphic interface and you can go a little faster than address by address in the neighborhood.

However, the advantages of having Multifamily properties are it scales faster and an opportunity to get higher monthly cash flow.

Its a similar model to a gym membership, they provide some resources, but you are charged whether you utilize the weights & treadmill or not.A lot of brokers, such as myself, don't charge "junk" monthly fees to their agents.