I personally have received an incredible amount of value from in person meetups.

I am helping a couple people do this right now, and the cash flow numbers are incredible!

What's motivating you to shift from being a passive to active real estate investor?

My business partner and I started a few years back and its incredibly rewarding. 

No more managing tenants, vacancies, maintenance and the managing the manager (who is a $12-20 dollar employee who's compensation structure us not aligned with your goals) By passing the control of the day to day operations to true experts who are literally partners (direct alignment of compensation and motivations), you can assure the investment is being optimized while you spend your time on what you want which is 1) making more money at your day job, 2) spending time with your family or 3) finding that one off deal that you want to do one your own while pairing with a Limited Partner strategy. 2.

The timeline I set forth (“by the end of the year”) is an internal goal that we are using to motivate our team to go out and source deals, as opposed to getting stuck in analysis paralysis.

How do you setup or get the contract when you have found a motivated seller?

Any advice or thoughts you have would be incredibly helpful!

Agree with most on here… the 4% commission will entice and motivate a few realtors that do not have much business, so you could put on “agent remarks: a bonus of $1000 for any full price offers if we get into escrow by said date _______.”  

If you are looking to invest into real estate, I have found this site to be incredibly helpful.