I believe in investing in one's self when ever possible in order to gain better understanding and effectiveness , but are any of these pursuits really needed from a buy and hold investing angle?

Admittedly, I do not know what CHAPA is and am probably not of much help on your pursuit of multi-family with a 203K loan.

I also find work part time, although much less so now, as a photographer.My goal in real estate is to build enough passive income to allow me to quit my job and focus on other pursuits, such as: traveling, living abroad, photography, investing in other businesses (which I will discuss at the end), and continuing to invest in real estate, of course.

While you wait for feedback and connections, below are some links to review.To be more successful, you simply have to work on the other elements to progress your REI pursuit.

Often those in academia can have a bias towards more scholarly pursuits and so they may view the manager of a REIT with greater prestige than a local agent or flipper.

@Sambit Sharma I have two suggestions in your pursuit of a mentor.  1.

In pursuit of yields in the current market in our area, many investors consider mobile homes but lose interest on closer inspection. 

I have tried some fancy approaches to force the market to bear a higher profit than it is willing to produce, but each time come back to simple, bread-and-butter investing.I jumped onto the site and took advantage of one of these "awesome deals" and for the weeks that followed I saw shiny object after shiny object illuminate my inbox . . . not to mention some very powerful retargeting "educating me" on the "easiest strategy you're not using to make $14k a week" and some such.So, after spending my already limited time and emotional energy on two of these pursuits in as many weeks, I decided to can it and say "see ya never" to the gimmicks.That's my experience. 

Currently I am a Sales Professional, starting walking door to door and now in over the phone sales (high pressure), I know this will be an asset in my pursuit.  

To be more successful, you simply have to work on the other elements to progress your REI pursuit.