Going to the events page above and seeing who is hosting meetups along with connecting with people at these meetups is a great way to grow your network of people within a small 25-50 mile radius.

IMO here's the differences between the areas you mentioned:1.

I spent an extensive time researching companies before getting in to multi family and BAM is definitely at the top of our list.  

Perhaps going to the local building department or title company to see who the big land buyers are in your area would be helpful for starting to discuss the idea with someone nearby?

He ran the numbers, we used a calculator to run numbers for rental or flip property, and the math made sense.

The main Real Estate one, On The Market, and BP Money are some of my favorites, but I also listen to the Rookie show when the topics are interesting. 

The last polling I saw showed that the large spending by the aids health foundation was working.  

Just need the land.

Top producers are always very pleasant to work with (which does not mean they are soft)3.)

I would get back to local real estate investor meetups so you can connect with locals to the area and kind of get back in the game slowly that way.