I am interested in connecting with other investors in the area to better understand the area, share stories (good or bad) and hang out.

Never say never, real estate is forgiving if you can hang on and if your time horizon is long enough.I have heard of builders increasing the cost and asking buyer to pay more at delivery, but it depends on your contract. 

How can I start my real estate journey with this initial obstacle hanging over me.

Or is there some kind of hang up I’ll have when trying to buy it as a primary but there are active leases? 

Landlord must authorize all improvements in writing.Tenant may hang pictures on the walls using picture hooks only. 
16.

You can hang out here or post here but the commercial forum would be more appropriate to learn from.  

So basically small to start until I get the hang of it enough to work out the kinks and get a better team in place to support my goals.

I'd hang onto that loan for the next 37 months.Since the property is cash flowing like crazy, I'd also take ~20% of the cash flow and pay down the principal balance over the next 37 months.

We would like to hang onto our house because it's in good shape and we secured a 2.75% interest rate on it which is impossible to come by in recent months.

Obviously this is an important decision, but from what I've seen the agents who are self driven to succeed will usually do so regardless of where they hang their license.