The only people that can truly answer your questions are the local brokerages.

I attended seminars, joined meetup groups, and regularly invited local professionals for coffee to learn from their experiences.

If you ever stop rolling over to new dsts and paying that 10-18% in fees, then you’ll owe all those taxes anyway…It reminds me of the large local swap meets, gun shows, craft shows, etc etc etc….    

You can start with reading his books (Multifamily Millions) and go to a local seminar when they are in town.

I never heard why but a big name local developer bought that land and the plans so I'm excited to see what he does. 

A great way to find a good team member (contractor, agent, partner, attorney, lender, PM, etc.) is at a local Real Estate Investor meetup.

Remember, even your regular 401k/IRA money when you eventually take money out, will cost you a decent chunk of change for income taxes (oh, and state and local too depending on where you live).

Investing out of state can be a good option if your local market isn't a good fit.

I'd highly recommend looking at going to the Investor lab events or join the local REI.

We're a local lender and we have a bunch of newer investors who are also local.