@James McGovern - my wife was in attendance and she and I own 20+ properties, a huge office building, have done multiple 1031 exchanges, Segregation studies, flips, private money, creative financing etc. I have three partnerships currently from going to meetups like CTREIA. These partnerships will make me passively $100k per year forever within the next few years. I'd be happy to talk specifics about this if you do not believe me - just DM if interested.
While, many are n00bs, we use the opportunity to network to be able to have a huge source of people working for us for the next opportunity. I was just handed a partnership in a property that has 30% equity today and was given the option of owner financing at $1,000 a month with 0% interest for 10 years. I'm debating doing it since I have more opportunities than money to fund right now.
I think some people have said correctly that your negative mindset is going to turn people off from working with you. Instead of thinking everyone is n00bs, think of everyone as a potential partnership or source of marketing so that you can help them with the things you are great at, renovation, etc and they can find you the deal that you keep trying to find.