I grew up in the industry and still have a hard time with holding contractors accountable.

Regarding Rob Beardsley he grew up in Silicon Valley and learned about real estate and tech from his parents, who ran a real estate brokerage firm from home, thus he had a built-in mentors and good networking to start with in addition to the capital that his parents have preserved for him so he got a good jump start.

Quote from @John Salcedo: I started with a few turnkeys and as my experience and risk tolerance grew, I now do out of state BRRRR projects.   

I grew up in a remote part of TX surrounded by acres and acres of land.

I was a foster child who put myself through college on my own, and I have relied on some good friends for a place to stay as I grew up, which has motivated me to create a better life for myself.I have done a lot of research on real estate, and from my perspective, it seems as if wholesaling, which I feel my sales skills may help with, would be a good place to start to make some extra money to speed up the investing process.

I grew up in Gilbert and just moved to Austin, TX. 

welcome @Cam Caraher and congrats on joining BP, this place is the start for many, sure was for me longer ago than I care to admit.I'm not personally in your market, although was born in dorchester and grew up in NH, but this is a great place to meet locals.If you have not already a great starting point is the Meetups posted here, just search for your area and see if any meetups are happening. 

Start with locations I'm most familiar with - Spend some time on Youtube learning about the different areas, and seeing which ones I'd be comfortable living in- When narrowed down, rent an Airbnb and try to spend a week in each place- From there, start talking to some property managers and networking in the area to find opportunitiesI grew up around the metro Detroit area, so that would be a good starting point for the research, expanding out to nearby spots in the midwest like Ohio.

I grew up in Gilbert!

nice job I grew up flipping land I love that play still fund land flippers to this day is a niche of lending that I have carved out..