There has been a lot of talk recently about short term rentals in mountain vacation towns (thanks @Avery Carl - but really your episode was awesome) but are there a lot of you who invest in beach towns? 

No, be smart about it, get an education, no matter how easy or fun anyone makes R.E.I to appear, its hard work, takes capital...And more importantly it takes time to be to sucessful, unless you have a pot of gold to push you faster...For me i love real estate, i live it breathe it,eat it and sleep it....make sure this isnt just a faze, or you watched to many episodes of flip this house, now its got you excited, be sure you love it before you choose to throw away an education. 

I don't know the episode numbers off hand but they are there!

I see you mentioned that you enjoy podcasts- I'm sure you've heard BPs podcast episodes. 

I'm devouring BP podcast episodes and working through the BP Beginner's Guide. 

@Gabe Cinquepalmi  I'll go ahead and put a plug in for my podcast, episode 101, because I talk a little bit about Raleigh.  

So, here I am - 33 episodes into the podcast, thinking I should probably get involved in the community. 

It's talked about at length in many of the podcast episodes but essentially you purchase a small multifamily property (2-4 units), live in one of the units and rent out the others.

The house at this time looked like an episode out of Hoarders and it was a mess.

Once money paid to the landlord exceeds 1/3 of the tenant's income it's only a matter of time before there will be an "episode" and the tenant leaves the landlord high and dry.