In that time, I've paid a nominal fee to a local real estate investor's association for mentoring; obsessively listened to BP podcasts;  spent hours pouring over blogs; and spent hours more watching YouTube videos on investing... 

There is more to that story than it appears , I watched the video , thats an old trailer , pre heat pumps .

No one can cover everything on a single webinar, podcast or a book regarding any one strategy as the moving parts, and required baseline knowledge, is sometimes over looked and furthermore could be assumed that one would have had that base knowledge before reading, watching or listening to the material offered.

I've been watching a property in my town since last summer.

Conversely, are there any prohibited transactions I should watch out for?

@Wayne Terry  Watch out for Miss Havisham

Start watching the podcasts for they will open your eyes to how many different approaches that is available to take.  

What would be great is to watch someone in person negotiate deals and get hands on experience but I know that would be tough unless you knew someone in the business well.Thx and sorry for all the newbie questions.

I'd encourage you to go to YouTube and watch Steve Job's commencement address at Stanford.

In my studies the message is to you due diligence and calculate costs and then I watched a training where the investor made an offer on the spot with a few simple calculations.