Or are you doing college online?

Facebook and all these online or social media based groups can only get you so far.

Get to know people, build relationships, and determine if they are the real deal or a pretender.Asking for investing advice from strangers can be a lot like online dating: 

In terms of the lady spending all her time reporting violations... yikes.There are a few maps online that show the unincorporated areas of pinellas county down to the street, and then you can cross reference the county zoning website.

Mentors are found by building relationships at meetups in real life, not online when you are just getting started unless you are using the forums as your meetup and you are really getting to know people.4.

Recommend Googling for recent projects, then looking them up at the city's online site to find out who the architects are.

Watertown seems to be a different animal, but I’m familiar with it.

These "bandit" signs are everywhere in NYC and I have yet to ever come across someone who has called them to actually sell their property - most people I know have looked up something online and landed on an option through that route. 

Then I paid $25 to some online background check agency to find out if the owner had any other liens/bankruptcies/judgments against them and also got their contact info from there.

You can also check meetup.com or search Facebook for real estate investment groups, clubs, or meetings in your area.I'm in a small town where networking is impossible, so I do it online through facebook groups and BiggerPockets.