I would speak to local banks and credit unions since this is where you might be able to work out a win-win financing solution.

Some markets are excellent for short term, and others not so great.It depends upon your goals, your temperament, and the time you have to invest.

It runs the fourth Tuesday of every month and is an excellent chance to network with other investors.

BiggerPockets is indeed an excellent platform for expanding your knowledge and networking.

Does anyone have any recommendations, or even better any spreadsheets, excel or web-based, they use to keep track of all construction expenses for Flip/BRRRR properties? 

Tenants should be paying for anything they did that required repairs during the tenancy (eg they caused the toilet to back up, they pay for the plumber).I don't know what software to recommend, but you can do a lot of it in excel in a single file, just use different worksheets for each property within that one file.

Some were excellent, others a total waste of time and money and bad advice. 

However, in my opinion, since you are a new investor, completing a successful transaction and allowing yourself to gain experience by getting a win under your belt is more valuable than the Return on Effort itself.

@Jay Hinrichs Yes there are the two tiered systems and discounts on property taxes for owners in certain groups however sometimes I think the only one who is winning in the system when you add these complexities is the government jobs. 

The wife has excellent credit (high 700s) and the adult son (also a contributing income earner) has excellent credit as well (mid 700s).