I thought the way he explained things and broke them down was fantastic.

Connecting with experienced investors is a great move, and Austin is a fantastic market with lots of opportunities - I may be biased as I'm from here lol. :) 

You get what you pay for in all cases: while shopping for food, clothes, attorneys, CPAs, Doctors and Realtors. 

Fill in the foundation below.Check out the Start Here page http://www.biggerpockets.com/starthere Check out BiggerPockets Ultimate Beginner's Guide - A fantastic free book that walks through many of the key topics of real estate investing.Check out the free BiggerPockets Podcast - A weekly podcast with interviews and a ton of great advice.

STRs do fantastic if you know what you’re doing and the upfront capital.  

Fantastic information again.

Tiamo and Nate gave fantastic responses.

My dad wants to sell our home around January or February, so I’m planning ahead.I run my own clothing business, so I don’t have a W2 job—I've heard that can make it harder to get a loan.

For instance work clothes might be a legitimate business expense of a contractor, but usually it's not.

For someone that's not as conservative, or a different view on the cycle, they might have a different opinion than me on all of this.2) Sponsor quality check: (takes about 45 minutes per deal)I believe that a great sponsor can take an average looking deal and make it great, and that in mediocre sponsor can take a fantastic looking deal and make it bad (especially if there is a severe recession).