With that being said, there was still liquidity in the market place with your traditional private lending companies still writing loans.  

(Larger house, private beach, family friendly) or diversify in “type” and maybe do the opposite....maybe aim for the couple travelers instead and get a smaller place in a hyper convenient location (right by downtown, restaurants, etc)Any thoughts appreciated!

Liquidity matters.

If it's a larger organization, feel free to inquire about their different staff qualifications.2.

I've looked at all of the large RE companies such as Keller Williams and eXp, but I want to do this part time for now and keep my current job until I'm comfortable enough to leave.

He is VERY real estate friendly having owned several of his own properties and handling several of us who have larger portfolios. 

If it were me, I'd want to be able to stay liquid and a HELOC helps me do that.

I'm looking for options that are nearly as liquid but have better returns. 

Potentially selling and making a $100K to then buy a larger investment would be the plan but then again we could utilize a 1031 exchange if the timing is right later down the line. 

A friend of mine had an idea to buy "smaller cell sites" since the larger towers seem to be out of our price range as well as dominated by larger players.