This regains the original "base" (seed money) plus friends (profit).  

I have spent the past 6 months or so acting like a sponge trying to soak up as much advice and information as possible.

I don't necessarily have any specific questions as I'm on more of a "soak up all the knowledge I can" quest, but feel free to provide any guidance or pointers that my novel above may spur.

Soak everything in. 

I didn't take much from the turnkey investing information, but the financial freedom details are great soak up.  

So definitely go and take a business partner with you to the 3 day workshop, take notes and soak it all in, you will definitely know way more when its over than when you went in.

You can certainly invest with little or no money down, but it definitely helps to have more seed money.I notice you also mentioned "no experienced investor I know of."  

Have been on BP a couple of weeks, soaking up all the information I can, recently got pre-approval for VA loan, looking to connect with a local broker who is also an investor in duplexes, triplexes, quads.

Have been on BP for a month now, soaking up all the information I can.

It would Take a bit of re-seeding in the patchy areas (which I already had started doing, but spring in Washington can be sunny one day- snow the next) remove the two dead shrubs  (died because of where they were planted- no sunlight under a big oak tree, the other 6 in the line are fine) and a bit of just pruning back some of the bigger bushes.