Lowering their temperature certainly leads to longer term tenancies. 

This area has so far only generated FHA offers.

And for exchange I’m willing to work with the agent and bring them off market leads with my marketing funnel.

[I've been inspired by an old friend of mine whose now accumulated 3 units, starting with a place he got a few years back for $120k in Jersey City that now rents for over $1200/mo.. and has appreciated 50%+]Longer term, I want to build a network of local people with varied skills and to employ some of my underemployed friends in a variety of value generative ways.

I know I lost out on some speculative gains but my goal is to keep my money and then generate positive cash flow.

Rentals generate the other kind of income, passive, which cannot be used to fund retirement plans.So first, you will have to restructure your setup to "manufacture" active income.

Portland is a pretty competitive market for investors, so you will likely want to find off-market leads.

The response rate is extremely low and it requires a lot of follow up in order to generate leads.

For now, I'm focusing on wholesale to help save up money to fund my first flip.From the research I have done I've pretty much come to the conclusion that I need to start my business or form a LLC (of course for a name, website, flyers, etc.) and to start putting in crazy amounts of leg work like driving for dollars and getting some leads together and started up in order to put together a profile to find potential cash buyers..Is there any advice you could give me that would help out with the beginning stages of starting up my wholesale business?

The #1 reason is generating wealth thru appreciation, and the #2 is generating passive cash flow.