.- Kitchen faucet: A single hole bar and prep faucet (high U-shaped faucet with end that is also a sprayer).We pEXTERIOR:- Trashout / Clean-up yard- Landscape, seed lawn- ?

Around the same time, BP started posting YouTube videos of the ADU Guy, Derek Sherrell (see video below) which planted the seed of converting my garage into livable space.

Thanks,Sarah  G'Day Sarah,Congrats on the leap of faith into the wonderful world of real estate investing.Best tip I could give you would be to take your time and soak up as much information on anything and everything real estate.Be it buying locally or out of state, the most important thing is to establish trust and relationships with key people dependent on the strategy you are looking at implementing.Over my career I have witnessed countless of investors getting caught up in online market stats, demographics, charts, etc... only to end up loosing money.As cliche as it mind sound but "Team-work makes the dream work"For example, if you buy the best house, in the best area, on the best street with the best capital growth prospects but your property manager is incompetent or a cheat.

Your goal of soaking up valuable insights for real estate investing is fantastic.

Since you want it to be as easy/quick as possible, I'll give you three things you need to learn...as a starting point:1 - How to Analyze Markets to find the Micro-markets that are good to invest in.2 - How Money Works, so you can develop an unlimited number of strategies which will allow you to be able to take advantage of as many opportunities as possible.3 - How to design your own REI Plan by reverse engineering from your specific set of financial goals back to where you are now...then execute it by turning around and just following the breadcrumbs.4 - (OK, I said it wasn't as easy as "just one thing")...Learn what the meaning of the number sequence "1073751824" means, and how to base EVERY decision you make on the meaning of that number sequence.5 - Learn why it's so important to follow the 2 Golden Rules of REI, of which GR#1 is:  NEVER, under ANY circumstances, ever, EVER, spend your seed money (your starting cash). 

The seed money started as an SFR that I put $30K (hard earned savings) as a down payment.

YES, Tax Free is wonderful, but a Roth is just paying the tax on the seed and not the crop. 

My two cents: connect with local investors, attend meetups if you can, and soak up their experiences.

I am just soaking it in and hopefully will make it work for me, only to contribute later to help someone else in the future as a way to give back. 

Best job in the world.You need to get your hands in the guts of the business as soon as you can and soak up as much knowledge as possible like a sponge from anyone in the business who doesn't suck.