I went to a Marcus & Millichap multifamily conference last week where they had a panel of lenders speaking. 

You actually just missed a great event as we are sitting in CHCH having been to the NZ Property Investors Federation conference where we heard Kevin Green, the UK's biggest private landlord speak.

Im going to PR San Juan Nov 14 for the housing conference. 

There are specific hotel conventions and conferences you could start getting involved in.

I'm not overly impressed with their conferences.

Quitting my job is definitely not an option, except when the time is right (actually investing in the company shares... its an Employee Owned Company in the Defense-Engineering industry).I thought that 401K (at least a % of my contributions to the plan) could be used as a line of credit somehow?

We've made several improvements to the property to include signage, adding a 5th private office & a conference room, new paint and flooring throughout and other small repairs.

As a newbie, the best way to find note sellers (performing or NPNs) is to attend the note conferences and meet sellers, vendors and network with other note investors. 

However, I just signed up for a conference on self-directed IRA's put on by Equity Trust.

In my defense, the property I wholesaled was legitimately under contract, and I built my buyers list from all of the calls I got from my ad (before I had it sold).