There is an active real estate meetup organizer in PCB as well.

Head out to one, find an investor doing the type of investing that you also want to focus on, and offer to help them for free with whatever they may need (finding deals, marketing, painting their flip, organization, etc) in exchange for their mentorship throughout your first deal.

As in, an organization, or just not profitable? 

Interested in how to rehab properties and buy and hold for rental income and also to assist other sellers who need an interior decorator to organize, stage and prepare pictures for their open house. 

I think the lenders just kind of grew organically after sharing info and identifying needs on both sides.

He is invaluable advice, free resources and payed.http://www.themichaelblank.com/session42/ this is great podcast to get started and allows you to visualize attaining something in a relatively short time period.

My question was if I could attain an equity line on the newly purchased property if I have no equity in it yet since I did a 3 year interest only with a ballon payment on the backend with no money down.

My goal with REI is to ensure a comfortable lifestyle through a smart and diverse holdings and attain true financial independence; I also want to help other like-minded individuals and do the same! 

So I can understand how other organizations may have similar issues.

I also saw that you are the organizer for the meet up group for mentoring.