As an individual or first-time investor- House Hack, lower interest rate/downpayment programs, local market knowledge, Rent a room, STR your house, Military BAH payments, etc.B. 

Open to all shared knowledge. cheers, DanHi Daniel!

That prevents one spouse from selling a property with homestead rights without knowledge of the person sharing those.   

My constraints are that I am only 24 and do not have any previous lending history nearly to this capacity, as well as having limited knowledge on how to structure these deals with subdivisions.

Most of them are not specialists in the way that youre thinking - they're retail employees with baseline knowledge of the products in that area.

I'm looking to connect and surround myself with locals who enjoy sharing their knowledge and experiences, and remember what it's like starting out (especially if you've successfully taken this approach recently).

Because they never lived there, their obligation to disclose anything about the property is typically zero and they just do don't have any knowledge about the property.

I was expecting to speak directly with someone who would be knowledgeable.... all I got was a sales person. 

At 6:00 pm on the first Thursday of every month we have been sharing resources, knowledge and encouraging people to win at investing in real estate.

Paying too much initially can significantly impact overall returns, emphasizing the need for thorough due diligence and possibly more stringent financial analysis before purchasing.For future investments, consider leveraging local market knowledge further and refining your property evaluation techniques.