Go to a few before making the plunge for full membership.

Obviously I need to know what shape the furnace, water heater, plumbing, and electric are in before taking the plunge, which can't be tested if everything to the house is shut off.

I've always been interested in real estate, but am finally taking the plunge to achieve my goal of being financial free by investing.

Any others take this plung yet?

And didn't agree with sending first mailers out to broad equity list.Took the plunge on 5000 wholesaling inc course few years back and though didn't find it that helpful for several reasons I'll discuss below, had no intention of giving a bad review about it until few days ago when I decided to get back into the off market and realized some of the documents included in the course I didn't have - (sales contract wholesale inc uses and the lease option course by joe mccall which was promoted as an add on to join the program at that time).

I'm in the same boat as you regarding looking to invest out of state and I have already built my team in AZ and will be taking the plunge once I sell my property in February.If you haven't already, I recommend the book on Long Distance Real Estate Investing by David Greene.

A main theme I have been hearing is to just take the plunge and buy the first property. 

Should I make the plunge to get a newly renovated affordable manufactured home, or should I wait for something somewhat affordable (condo, apartment, etc)? 

Pick your market, do your research, find lender(s), then start connecting with professionals in the industry for whichever area you decide.Being overseas – find a team that is utilizing the right kind of technology for you to be able to remotely track the progress of your investment – you won’t want someone who is new to this industry because you’ll need experienced professionals, when you can’t be there yourself, to be ready to handle the unexpected when it comes to flipping.Regardless of you waiting or taking the plunge now – there are a lot of pieces you’ll need to line up before you start investing.

They are kind enough to explain what they learned from their deals and what to avoid, definitely take all of these nuggets of gold and just let it marinate until you are ready to take the plunge.