I think this would be more of a long-term hold for cashflow purposes, however it seems minimal to start, and I feel there is likely little to no appreciation with this property. 

I own 2 small LTRs and want to wholesale to earn some capital so I can start flipping and STRs. 

Rentals create cash flow, and that's what we want as real estate investors, but you need cash on hand for unforeseen circumstances.The AC needs to be replaced, that's $7K to $10K or more depending on the size of the house and if you have one rental, it will eat all your cash flow, same to replace a roof, etc, or if tenant trash the home, you need money to fix it again.To me personally a nice rental portfolio that is healthy consists about 10 units, so if you have an issue with a house the portfolio can cover the repairs and still healthy, but when starting you need to have cash on hand just in caseYes, there are multiple strategies you can use to hack your way to buy your first rental with minimum cash, but I would start wholesaling or fix and flip a few deals to create that cash as fast as possible

Alongside my studies, I am deeply interested in starting a career in real estate.

Check out some local meetup groups in your area and start learning.Good Investing... 

any websites that go over current trends i should be aware of or any like rule books i should be reading before hand hahah.

I enjoyed that mine was a one man band, and it was smooth and efficient, handled by email and short hand dialogue and simple resolutions.My eviction filings, so far have been "light weight," mostly gets people motivated to pay and stay.I spoke to a couple of firms, but they make it sound much more complicated and ugly than it has been in my case, so they aren't resonating with me.

Although 5k is a great start, the Airbnb market is very competitive and you will need more set aside in order to properly acquire an investment property.

My target purchase price is under $1.7M and prefer cosmetic fix to start with.

I started with an afternoon every other week, which was changed to an afternoon every week.So I put issues into 3 buckets: emergency (a pipe is leaking), within 24 hours (toilet running), and non-pressing (a door is not closing on its own), which is where most things landed and are handled that way.