I had that a few times happen to me early in my career that people would book meetings with me, basically get free personal REI coaching, we looked at several properties and then they end up making an offer directly with the listing agent.

Hey all, I am new to the Bigger Pockets community and am reaching out to ask, What should be my first steps to begin my real estate career?

At this stage of my investing career I want my money working hard.

You're very right in advising lifestyle considerations - but it's crazy how little I know of the US (born/raised overseas, worked most of my career abroad). 

Contractors become developers later in their careers but it rarely goes the other way.

Just to clarify why I'm looking to flip instead of just buy and hold myself: I'm in a situation where there is very little banks will give me for leveraging rental homes despite having a good amount of assets and excellent credit because I haven't had any income in 4 years (long story short: I went back to school after my previous career as a professional poker player ended due to the online poker shutdown.

When I made a career change and decided to be a full-time real estate investor I had many reasons for wanting to go into real estate.  

I have a bulletin board at home with a road map as to where I want to take this career.

I am a die hard teacher and endlessly help people with their careers, etc.

I did it for about 3 years and had a lot of fun, made enough to pay my bills, made some amazing client friendships that changed my life, but at the end of the day I was making a lot more money in technology (that was my career prior to real estate).