Too bad you can't buy something owner-occupied, put 5% down with the best interest rate, live in it for 12 months (and fix it up), rent it out and repeat the cycle.Here's some other info you might find useful:----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

I wouldn't recommend Quit Claiming it during that time but otherwise that should be the only thing. 

Does anyone have any recommendations of first time home buyer grants or down payment assistance programs for New York State?

I am in Brent Daniels' TTP Mentorship (which is excellent - HUGE value) and he recommends Batchleads (but not their dialer - for that he prefers Mojo) and I think I should just stick to what he said, but I have serious "shiny object syndrome" - my bad ;)!  

And are there any meet up groups you would recommend joining for real estate investing ?

I recommend looking for a duplex, triplex, or fourplex.

Highly recommended.

buy it on seller financing and (not recommending this to anyone else) put the rehab budget on a 0% credit card. 

Often, it will also need work.So, that is causing investors to lower their standards and buy Class C & D rentals.Problem is, most investors apply Class A assumptions to these Class C/D properties - and then blame everyone else when they don't get their "expected" results.Check out copy & paste info below for more dtails:------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

I agree with where Nicholas is going, first, if it's feasible I'd recommend house hacking some type of multi family or even a single family that's local to you.