Coming from being morbidly obese (I am now a bodybuilder/competitive powerlifter), it brings genuine happiness to my heart hearing another person embarking on the weight loss journey and seeing results!

So I decided real estate development was the surest and most rewarding way to make money and transform spaces (ie house flipping).I also realized that this job market would not be easy to break into with limited connections and experience.

A genuine learning environment won't push you to call your credit card companies and ask for an increase in your limit, and pass this off as an "exercise" to teach you how to "negotiate".THAT is the type of education that is unsupported on BiggerPockets. 

As you mention, I want to genuinely help the homeowner. 

West Asheville has gone through a huge transformation as you know, and I believe it is positioned for another wave of growth based on recent activity in that market.

Go to local real estate meet ups and get to know some people and dont tell them that you have that money and see who is genuine to partner with and help you learn and grow without expecting much in return other than some sweat equity. 

Just tell people what you are looking to accomplish and be genuine, no need to feel shy around these folks, they all started in the same spot, with no real estate holdings at all.  

We just completely redid the house we bought 1.5 years ago (totally redone kitchen, bath, flooring etc... and we're now working on creating a built in entertainment center) It was pretty fun seeing the house transformed.

It was transformative, and a new world opened up for me.

This means taking a ugly house in a A-B neighborhood and transforming it into a show piece, very risky for a first timer.