Investing in St. Louis, Missouri

[Carl Flint]

I'm new to the investing world and very much interested in it. I am reading Brandon Turner's How to Invest in Rental Properties book and spending at least an hour a day involving myself in the real estate investing community, whether that be listening to podcasts, watching videos, or hanging out on BiggerPockets.com. This will be my future. It's fascinating.

I live in Los Angeles but I am born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. I would consider my self a person who has a local understanding of St. Louis. I want to raise a few questions to those who have any sort of knowledge or experience in investing here. I need suggestions or any kind of feedback.

Just a few questions I have would be:

1. What type of real estate would be the best option to start investing in here? Single-family? Multi-family? Fourplex?

2. What is a good strategy to start a career in investing/flipping in this area? How did you start? How do you recommend starting with about 30k in savings?

3. Are there any people I can reach out to connect with? I love having a person whom I can drill with questions about this topic.

Please, any kind of feedback is appreciated. I want to know as much as possible about investing and how to make this a primary income source.