You should be able to recoup the costs through your own market activity (plus some), you'll gain plenty of useful knowledge you didn't know you needed to know and as a mechanical engineer I'm certain you can handle the 60 hours of coursework and exam.

Buyers are trying to outbid each other, use that as an advantage.If you have occupied the unit in 2 out of the last 5 years you should be exempt from capital gains tax up to $500,000 (please talk to an accountant or attorney to verify, I am not one).

After gaining a lot of knowledge and research I realized it would be best for me to move back to Virginia.

My goal in real estate is to do wholesale deal in Tampa area to gain some money to do buy and hold investment. 

I short I was too timid.Fast forward about 5 months, I sold a property and after realizing the amount of capital gains tax I would owe I decided to do a 1031 at the last minute.

In February I decided to try housing hacking as a way of gaining additional founds for my first property.

I see this primarily as an opportunity to gain experience and build my network.

Borrowing costs are in the thousands, taxes from  profit on short-term gains are highest available  and sales commissions at the sale usually equal or are more than what you make for your risk, sweat and indigestion.  

As they say "numbers don't lie" but some in this game edit numbers let's say when financial gain in their favor.

I've been diving deep into the podcast as well, a lot of information to gain.