In case these were not covered I'll share my favorite options/ principles to do when you are young or starting out:- Understand that almost every successful person or person in general is working to optimize their business/life and they would benefit greatly from having more time (free time).. leverage the fact that you have the one thing everyone else needs, find the people who understand the absurd value of time and give them yours. 

I know with someone who doesnt have an agent, I can push them into some bad decision making and put my client the seller into an extremely optimal position.I love it though.

(The program is Healthy Neighborhoods Program).I guess my question is .. being that I would like to get into investing ASAP and i feel like this would be a great small step , are there any more options out there that would be more optimal for my situation (hard money lender, other programs, better routes)? 

Build up your cash now and wait until the recession hits, or find an investment that even with conservative underwriting provides cash flow in less than optimal conditions to help weather a slowdown.

I have worked through Avery Carl's system and am looking to implement some of the strategies from "Optimize My AirBnB" as well.

You're better off investing in a market that you have a strong chance of achieving your goals than to buy in a sub optimal market just because you can drive by and see your property.

So for those starting out in RE, there is no need to optimize return by going super high leverage. 

The level of financial sophistication it take to optimize both leverage and cash is a bridge to far for most on this site, so while I agree with your position that cash is better than debt, I think you are in the minority of investors who frequent this site when it comes to having that capital structure. 

It seems like those guys would agree with Lenahan's take that the relative optimism of this thread will not age well. 

I'm all for the optimism, but 50% drops?