Blackstone and other big players came in and kicked us little guys to the curb..

there are tons of lenders that don't need you to have 2y of self employment income on the books, and tons of RE investing strategies that don't need you to have provable personal income at ALL. so, if you've identified your strategy, location, team players, buy box, and where the money's coming from... and you've done your homework and have been practicing underwriting deals most days... why wait?

I don't know if he's a 'big time' player in the area, but he and his wife have some 50 properties, so I think I might have found something of a mentor as well.

John Fox was renting his $2-3mm home, as was Jay Cutler and I would imagine lots of sports players.  

I am a small player compared to the hedge funds out there.

Pine Financial is one of the big players here.

The banks don't exactly know how to lend to basketball players.

I am not sure if I am going to invest local, out of state, how to start finding deals, and generally I don't know what I don't know.I am hoping some of the more experienced commercial players on BP can give me some guidance on some effective next steps to take.

Good on you for taking the time and investing the money into travelling, putting feet on the ground and meeting the players in their respective cities.

If you want to succeed ..FOCUS, SACRAFISE, SELF DISAPLINE the key players in success.