Does anyone have any good resources to connect with out of state investors that own property in Texas?

Regardless he would certainly be a good resource for some names if he's not a good fit for the matter. 

The safe play for me is probably to just buy an Investment property in Buffalo (I already have a good relationship with a PM here who would be a great resource for me), but for some reason my heart is in Ellicottville - the idea of being able to use a property as a vacation getaway for a week or two a year and then rent it out the remainder of the year sounds super appealing.

There are also a TON of free resources.

I used "regular" money, not deferred money but you can use them to defer just your gains. https://www.novoco.com/resource-centers/opportunit...Of course there is always at 1031 if you can find another prop.

Many other states offer these types of plans through your gas/energy company so you should look into that if you are concerned about AC unit being old and not wanting to proactively replace.

Not really sure where to start but we just sold our house so I have some capital to get started, just want to make sure I make sound choices when starting so I decided to join BP as a resource to make connections and maybe even find my first deal.

Or project the cost breakdown of rebuild base on your time and resource to rebuild or fix it.  

What I can say is that if I were 22 and had your resources, I would look into house hacking.

The best resources are here.