There are meet ups all over the country; i'd recommend a google search of your area to see what pops up. i'd also suggest joining local facebook groups for your area / surrounding areas and ask there.I tend to agree with Stuart here; your first deal should be your own capital here and serve as a proof of concept you can use as an example in moving forward to try and garner money from investors for future deals.Other than bringing a deal to an experienced investor it's unlikely they will want to give capital to someone who hasn't pulled the trigger before.

I'm wanting to know more about the self storage industry and have been looking at deals sitting on the market.

If you don't like cold calling, being hyper social/extroverted, and dealing with heavy rejection often I wouldn't recommend it.

Or this equity can be used as collateralization for another deal.3. 

For my next deal I'm considering adding another duplex to the portfolio or investing in a syndication.

Your realtor should be the backbone of your business and be able to help with sending you personalized deal flow, building the rest of your real estate team (PMs, GCs, lenders, etc), showing you the good/bad neighborhoods, developing scope of work and estimating renovations, and so much more!

If you have a builder, why not just engage them and get a loan vs. having to deal with a JV partner?

Remove the commission (Or just make it very small) and have the rest negotiated into the deal with the seller.

I’ll admit the fear of failure and unknown holds me back regardless of goes many articles or reports I read or deals I look at.during this search hundreds and hundreds of ads come through for training/mentorship style groups.

BP team - I have 14 months to properly prepare and plan a massive deal via 1031 exchange to spend $750k.