I felt that it was very well done, covered a significant amount of material, had a friendly and motivational feel, and was a good experience and a worthwhile value for $1500.

Unless you have an STR-friendly HOA in a tourist hotspot (Honolulu, Las Vegas, etc...), I personally don't like properties with HOAs if your plan is to run them as STRs.  

You become a mark.Constructive criticism is your friend.

The first line you mention the increasing friend of investor looking for.

I have two friends who own rental properties and they are successful with their properties, I read Rich Dad Poor Dad twice along with Rental Property Investing and Power of Habit, I've been told by multiple people apart of the Baby Boomer and Generation X that they wish they invested in Real Estate at my age, I was a Resident Advisor at my University and I enjoyed that role so some of the skills are transferrable, and lastly this is the best time for me to take a risk.

I've stayed in Cancun at the Club Med when going there with a group of friends but we never left the resort and I think most visitors (the many I've met at least) are in the same boat.

Nature is not friendly, he said: it's either polar winter up there or you can't breath because of the smoke.

I have friends that routinely complain about it.

I have friends who own properties with 5+ units who Airbnb 1-2 units in those buildings but again there are limits to the scalability thing. 

I knew there were others out there going through the same thing :) I agree- we've been able to work with investor-friendly lenders to secure conventional loans that allow us to buy properties and honestly, i've never really leveraged credit cards for RE or RE related purchases so this was slightly new territory for me.