"We've locked ourselves out of the cabin and the combination isn't working!"  

That is a much different picture than someone who would be at a combined loan to value of 75% with a 2nd lien, versus a 1st lien at a very low loan to value. 

I just hit 30, I'm highly conscientious and learn quickly, and I want to beat the 9-5 life.My wife and I both work full time, combined gross income is about 76k.

You're not including Repairs / CapEx (combined 15% of rent), vacancy (10%), or management (10%).

I have a combination of both , and basically if half are vacant all my bills are still paid at the end of the month .

When I noticed a few issues where the calculators appeared to not be functioning properly (no information is provided with the calculators, you get just what Brandon uses in the sales pitch every week (like Carlton Sheets).

There are people way smarter than me and you combined that still don't have a clue what's going to happen next. 

As for improvements to get top market rents a unit is perfectly functional at market rent for 20 years assuming it is kept in good condition.

Yes obviously we need to get paid BUT we more than make up for it by comping a lot of things that other lenders cannot + combine that with specials that the bank might cover or throw in for us since we do a lot of business and at the end of the day our client usually 9 times out of 10 gets a way better deal overall, better rate, better closing costs by waiving certain fee's if we can, etc etc. 

Indy has had more investment come to the city the past 4 years that the past 25 years combined, for example.