I have been warned by many many people now that they are more of a giant sales pitch than anything else and no one I've met that invited me to one has yet to be interested in working with a "newbie" unless you have a lot of capital to burn.

I looked him up, very easy to do, and he came over the same day and put my house under contract)I have done this on numerous occasions and have been able to sell every one of my homes within my contract time frame or within days of my closing.  

And another part of the blog is what to prepare on your side BEFORE you invite a contractor to do job walk.

It's invite only but it's specifically for rehabbers who need a joint venture partner to fund their deals. 

I've already sorted through some basic numeric parameters via excel.  

My day job is analytically oriented, so by nature I won't make a deal unless I'm sound in the numbers; at the same time I've seen it mentioned here numerous times that the biggest recommendation is to start making actions.Hope your week is going well as we approach Thanksgiving, and as always thanks for the advice!

I've been a subscriber to numerous podcasts and newsletters on the topic for some time and had a renal property under contract 2 months ago that financing fell through on but I'm looking to get started in the buy and hold area.

Being a young guy out of Cleveland, with more than 1,000+ RE SFR & Multi transactions, in numerous capacities completed, my track record is vast and knowledge capacity is wide.

I have some meetups planned in Orange County, that may be a bit of a drive for you but I'll invite you so that you can stay posted as to what topics we're discussing.Also, I believe @Jim Keller has resources for meetups in the Riverside/San Bernardino County areas, but verify with Jim when you get the chance! 

You are correct, there are numerous highlights I can mention like: I've never lost money on a buy, I've bought a $500 web property and sold it for $4,000 in the span of a month, and I've currently bought a property for $4,000 that I plan to sell for $10,000+ in the next few months.