I appreciate any advice or suggestions you can share.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated! 

This is the fork where I'm not sure if I'd be good to get some CRE exp and invest in learning about how to review deals for the next 2-3 years, or focus on generating revenue for investment purposes and watch how things are done as a LP.My personality more aligns with networking, reaching out to people, connecting, navigating difficult situations and finding solutions that work.

I’m not familiar with those markets, but I would suggest finding some meetups and attending as many as you can.

The only item I would suggest is double check the payment terms of the your HELOC... in particular, can you pay interest only or are you required to pay a portion of principle each month on the amount utilized.

Nathan Roberts also on this site may have some suggestions as well. 

Nothing is foolproof of course, but having another investor in your market make a suggestion at least gets us on the right foot. 

Use the two years to learn the area and I would suggest as soon as you can, find a duplex and start a house hack. 

Upon searching the popular areas my graduate friends suggested (Uptown, The Village, Greenville), I have determined there is no way I can justify renting a property in that range.Funny enough, I am currently living out of a 2 bedroom condo north of Dallas (short term air bnb) for my internship with one of my college friends (we split rent).

I suggest using a service like Mayistay.