(I remember when my dad bought some books from Amazon.com in 1996 or 1997; he wasn’t a pioneer, but he was a fairly early adopter, and immediately recognized the consumer value that Amazon brought.) 

I read some books and saw the late night advertisements about real estate investing, so I was very interested in this type of property.

Your reporting on your federal return shows whatever recognized gain is recognized. 

One area I recognize I’m lacking in is networking.

I recognize that the cost benefit may be negated by other challenges; hence, my question.

There will be a lot of agents advertising their market, and while this can be annoying, it can also be helpful when searching for areas to look in. 

I've seen some of those advertised also. 

I really thought it was a catch, and advertising hoax.  

I recommend setting up keyword alerts for each area as they are discussed in the forums daily with advertisements posted in the BiggerPockets marketplace hourly.One thing to note when looking at the individual markets, you can make or lose money in any market.

We have cable or YouTube TV.Can't be cheap on this.We even advertise if someone else isn't offering cable channels what else are they cutting corners on?