One question for the community is: What are the next best steps I should take to further educate myself and get started in this industry to set myself up for future success?

There are so many avenues to generate income in this industry.

Many 506b deals are pitched to new students including ones that are failing and the students have no knowledge in this industry to understand what is being presented.

One of the biggest factors at play right now is data transparency among lenders, we can see a lot of the industry-wide trends.

The recent surge in natural disasters has created an "Armageddon effect" on the real estate industry.

I do generally agree with the sentiment of Austin and the other hosts that fundamentals will always win out in the long run, and this by nature is a long term industry, even the sales side I'm learning.  

@Albert Gallucci as many have pointed out, in the commercial space of 100+ apartment buildings and offices, property classes have some pretty decent industry standards.We started applying these to 1-4 unit properties around 10 years ago, which you can verify on our blogs, because we saw too many newbie investors not properly taking into account things like, neighborhood status, tenant pool, property condition, etc.Unfortunately, there's no industry standard for this, but you can use some basic logic to think your way through your own Classifications.

Perhaps the East Asian hospitality industry provides full refunds no questions asked. 

We have been around the bigger pockets community for over a decade now and have more 5 star reviews on bigger pockets than any company on this website in any industry (>270  5 Star reviews).

This dedication can help you avoid becoming part of the 70%-80% of new agents who leave the industry within their first couple of years.