I'd recommend going to a local real estate networking group such as the RI Real Estate Investors Group (usually on the 3rd Thursday of each month in Warwick; see rireig.com for more info) or Black Diamond Real Estate Investors in Mass (they meet twice a month; see blackdiamondrealestateinvestors.com) as both are great places to do what you mentioned, network and connect with positive like minded real estate investors.

When you find the diamond in the rough they can give you steady passive income. 

Here are some of the people I would recommend to follow if in case you are still interested in lease options :Joe Mccall (Great System)Joe Crump (Good youtube videos)Chris Goff (Great youtube tutorial)Claude Diamond (Amazing on Phone)Michael Carbonare - Naked Investor

It's wonderful that you're getting started at such a (relatively) early age - the lessons you learn about real estate now will serve you well for the rest of your life.If you're open to house hacking, living in one unit of a multi-family property and renting out the other unit(s), then I think you can learn a lot, especially if you combine it with some of the resources you can find here on BP and in real estate groups near you such as RIREIG and Black Diamond REI.I usually recommend that path (house hacking) to people who don't strongly lean toward something else like rehabbing, just because chances are good you have some experience already as a renter/tenant, so it's a good and natural transition to then provide services to others in the same way.Even if you ultimately, down the road, end up using property managers, you'll still be able to manage those managers a lot better if you have personal experience managing a property or two of your own (and managing those tenants).I hope this helps and again, welcome to Bigger Pockets!

We have always used Black Diamond for our plumbing, sewer, electrical, and HVAC and have been very happy with them.

And one of the things that helped my mindset was a great tiny little book called "Acres of Diamonds".

@Nate Wentworth Check out the New England REIA MeetUp in Chelmsford and the Black Diamonds REIA MeetUp in Worcester/Waltham.

Hi everyone,I recently started taking a look at the Diamond head area of Oahu at rentals and keep seeing a lot of leaseholds.

You have to turn over a lot of rocks to find the diamond.

Would be A 1/2 carat diamond engagement band..