The fundamental principles don't change, but the lending requirements and marketing strategies have certainly changed.

Make sure the fundamentals are there.

I work in digital marketing so Im always describing things as simply and fundamentally as possible.

There are numerous avenues to add value and the strong fundamentals in the area will support the anticipated rent growth.#2 The hold time is too long.Rebuttal:  What alternatives are you planning to invest in, I'm always looking. 

Are you basing your appreciation play on any market fundamental data like: jobs, population growth, etc?

Growth is fundamentally driven by population.

After getting over my deflated ego, I started educating myself on the fundamentals of real estate investing found here on BP.

BUT the fundamentals are the same.

I am on the fence on signing up for this course: https://courses.propertymetrics.com/join/iaf/I'm in a highly active and regimented education-focused period right now and one of my big interests is leveraging some personal relationships I have to get further involved in commercial real estate investing, but its the fundamentals that I know I need work on right now to prepare for that. 

I believe wholesaling is a good start for building the fundamental skills and developing the relationships necessary to accomplish that goal.