If you become successful in your investing activity, a healthy relationship with a lending institution which operates within your sphere of activity is crucial for future growth. 

My advice for new agents is that the first thing you should do is to tell everyone in your SOI (sphere of influence) that you are an agent.

Spoke with a few investors within my sphere, I have been told that I hold a powerful tool that being the VA Loan.

So if your hard money loan + capital contribution = $200k, you buy the property for $100k, your balance sheet would be $100k OZ property and $100k cash, which would just be 50% of your assets in OZ property. 

I have been basing my business of of my sphere of influence no results so far.

You have at least 6 mos, often more, to find a new OZ property to purchase/substantially improve. 

Depends on your strategy, but I had the thought that 1/1 duplexes would excel in STR sphere. 

As far as being in an OZ, to be honest, I don't really focus my investing strategy on it.

Friends, family members, co-workers (current and past), neighbors, and anyone else in your sphere of influence from social and spiritual gatherings.2.

You nurse your existing sphere into a spider web of options.