You're likely better off attending your local REI meet-up to see if you can find an investor who has house-hacked or is currently house-hacking their primary home.

Makes me think they could be too busy taking care of a new baby to attend to guest issues? 

In my opinion, the best "first step" is to find a local REIA to attend. 

Have you tried attending your local REIA's and real estate meet-up groups?

Find the REIA group for your areaAs Henry noted, post something specific for your area and tag your market.Get on Loopnet for your area and property type, reach out to the brokers that are listing deals and offer to take to coffee (they are often invested in deals too but you could ask for connections to other operators that might be getting started).And, again as Henry noted, each person you meet, ask them what other networking events they have attended that you can put on your list.

My professional background is data science / analytics, which means analyzing cash flows will probably come more naturally than building relationships, which apparently, is how one finds deals worth making.Are there meetups in these areas I should attend (digitally at first, presumably)? 

If you’re an investor who believes that if a deal over performs they should keep a majority of those profits, attend one of our webinars next week for a 440 unit deal we are closing on in 3 weeks with a 22% IRR and 3.1x equity multiple.

Ideally, I’d be buying and selling and potentially managing properties as a job, and be working the gardens and hobby farming, potentially attending farmers markets on weekends (we both love to create things).

I would recommend searching for local Facebook groups to find events to attend.

Attend the local and regional Real Estate meetups.