By my understanding, they pay a fee to apartments for the background check and application, right?

Last time I looked the laws read In order to practice any kind of property management (applies to STR technically but is kinda gray area) in Alaska you need to be a licensed agent under a Broker unless you manage 4 or fewer units or if they are your personal units.

I'll start by introducing myself and a little background. my name is Yiking Hernandez i'm originally from queens NYC.

It is technically possible to 1031x into land that you already own and improve it. 

I wanted to ask the community for any tips you might have on where to begin learning this business and possibly some guidance on what kind of work I could be seeking out as a student with no background in this industry.

For my small size it seemed unnecessary and I didn't see the benefit in the small companies for a small time guy like myself.What I do is I can collect rent through Venmo (free), I have a tennant application embedded into my website (cognito forms...also free) I screen tennants through mysmartmove.com (Transunion's company gives you credit report, background, criminal, eviction etc. and tennant pays for the screening so also free.) 

I have selected a tenant that meet all qualification and have completed a background check.

Now I’m in Brandon Turners A Better Life Tribe which I’m having some technical issues with but after about 10 weeks of not being able to use the site they seem to have fixed it and I’ve been able to use different services associated with it all along so not a total loss.

Yes, reading is great to learn about specific technics, but hands-on application when running alongside guys that are doing it day in and day out is far superior.

For some background, I am a Space Coast, Florida realtor looking to get out of renting and dabble into the investing space soon by starting out with a property of my own.