Wholesaling teaches you an extremely valuable skill in RE: How to find off-market deals.

We start the process in my organization at a $250 default.

You need to polish your skills, bigger pockets is a great place to start... find a local wholesaler you can work for/with and he will guide you. 

A tidy, well-organized space can help the appraiser focus on the home's features rather than distractions.Research Comparable Properties: Have a list of comparable properties (comps) that have sold recently in your area.

Metro’s technology sector being the 8th largest pool of tech talent in the world and the 3rd largest pool of tech talent in the United States (Source) should continue to drive median household incomes as these highly skilled employees in the D.C. metro are become more and more essential to the 15,000 tech companies in the D.C.

Feel free to inquire about their staff qualifications if it's a larger organization.2.

My vision is for this meetup to be informal and organic.

With experience in construction and sales, you'll definitely be able to use those skills to your advantage when doing value-add deals.The better the deal is, the easier it will be to do the BRRRR method and you can find some of the best deals off-market, so it's important to build a solid network and create deal flow so you can see as many opportunities as possible. 

So, I would only recommend doing it when there are synergies to take advantage of such as the partner having a skill like HVAC, interior design, accounting, etc. 2.

You've proven that you can manage the dealflow you are handling so it makes sense to me that you leverage those skills to help others with their deal flow.