I would like to mentor with someone in the area who knows the business but I am not quite sure on who to contact or what avenues to explore to find someone willing to be a mentor.

I have not worked with them personally but they have a very good reputation.

The meantime I am learning and exploring other real estate investment vehicles (wholesaling, rehabbing, etc).

Goldberg has a pretty good reputation.

This may an option for you and may be worth exploring.

Hard money lenders have earned a bad reputation in the area of lending for no good reason.

The value you bring as a serious, focused, and engaged person goes a LONG way to establishing your reputation.

GC's that fail on large projects don't do much to change the crappy reputation that GC's  sometimes have, and failure of big projects can have blighting effects on an entire community. 

I'm exploring other options as well, but scrapping it is definitely a possibility, so I'd like to get a couple of estimates.Please post here or ping me, if you can recommend someoneThanks much!

A place the Young,Black,White,Hispanic,etc...can go to feel free safe and secure to explore and release there hidding talents while connecting with there fellow youth and still grasping the tool's  they will need along the way to seced in everyday life.But a location is disclosed at this point of time.