Many investors aren't fortunate enough to have a sum of money to start with.  

I have recently attended a fortune builders conference and have been told that their Mastery Program offers support programs which start at $30,000 for the lowest and the highest is a whopping $49,997 for their most supportive program.

Fortunately, it sounds like you are at least figuring out how to properly assess your situation.

You're fortunate to have someone close to learn from.

Fortunately I have enough equity built up in my condo that I believe I'm in a position to start investing if I look in more affordable areas.I'll probably need to look for properties out of state, so I'd appreciate any recommendations of areas to check out, or any advice in general on the topic.Also, I'm hoping to be able to grow as quickly as I can manage, I don't want to just acquire a single property and then have to wait years to save up for a second.  

I feel very fortunate. 

Fortunately historically the appreciation of San Diego has had a far better ROI versus better cash flow locales (verifiable fact).By the way rents on small rental units in San Diego have been going up ~$100/month per year for the last few years.

Timothy Metra I was lucky enough to not have major fixes or problems with the duplex so I wasn't getting calls from my tenants but if I would have I fortunately had myself and a few other people that could take care of issues.

Richard Hannig you are very fortunate to have interest at such a young age.

The 3 main things I learned from that experience were: a) I was overthinking (every thing) when it came to getting started; b) I was looking in the wrong places for deal(s); c) If I was going to be successful, I needed to have a team, and fortunately, he was able to introduce me to his HML (hard money lender) his title company and his network, until I was able to replace them with my own team.