Each year when I sit down to establish my goals I define the qty of units I want to purchase and the qty of units I want to pay off. 

@Jaron Walling one that I have found the owner is in bankruptcy and the property has been sitting for a while.

The only access to the road it sits on is by going under one of two bridges.

The house as been sitting and I’m interested I purchasing it.On records it shows her as the owner and her mailing address as the address.

Networking with other agents is huge too, sitting in an office and getting this advice in person is huge. 

But sometimes you have specific questions you want to sit down with someone local for an hour to help with your decisions, validate what you do or decide if you should go right or left.

It has a small college and from the people ive talked to rents are seasonal and units can sit vacant for long periods of time.

Based on your comment, I am assuming you are financing, so I would be cautious.To find your first deal in this market, I would try listed properties that have been sitting a long time on the market, where you can inspect, get bids, secure financing, etc in a more reasonably pace.Once you have done a few deals, then you will be in a better spot to buy from a wholesaler.  

I'm sitting at 11 years active duty and I've been a RE investor the whole time.

I tend to buy in the Southern half of the US for 2 reasons:1) you get much higher year-round occupancy rates in the South & it’s simply tough to earn a good ROI in the North if your place sits vacant for a big chunk of the year2) Culturally, the Southern half of the US seems to be a lot more accepting of STRs regulation-wise.