Consider getting a credit card or doing other responsible actions to build credit if you don't currently have any.Note that the secret to real estate investing is patience.

However I do have some family in the Jennings/Pine Lawn area and was able to finally come over and pay them a visit only to discover, that there were tons of opportunities in STL that I could never afford in the Bay Area of California.

I recently discovered Cody Bjugan’s work on youtube.

If there's a "secret sauce" at all, that's it.Now, can you juice your cash flow a bit with STRs/MTRs or house-hacking?

Now, he (or his accountant) has discovered using K-1 capital accounts to calculate ownership. 

How about this: TX trust -> Wyoming LLC(with a professional registered agent).Trust is generally preferred by lenders over LLCs.If OP gets sued for personal reasons, the plaintiff would not be able to discover his property even if they searched every state. 

Eventually I discovered bigger pockets, so I didn't do any calculations unfortunately. 

Your choice: Listen to the agent selling it to you and reaping the potentially large comission or listen to someone who knows the tricks and secrets and then go buy it from whomever you want.

Like @John Underwood said, what about other, less discovered areas in other states?

I grew up in SD and moved to Temecula a few years ago, which was also right about the time when I discovered Bigger Pockets.