I met a guy in Tulsa that spent over $80,000 on his "education"... that's a down payment on a few houses... just be nice, talk to people, take them to lunch and they will help you.

I been reading books and going to meetups to educate myself the best I can and I'm now ready to start my first flip in my area..

If you start educating yourself now, you will be ready at some point to "retire" your property manager, and take care of your investments.  

I have been reading, watching podcast, and all trying to get my education up.

My first option was to take a bus to a rei in downers grove (about an hour away) and try to enter a real estate education course on a payment plan and try to earn while learning but after reading about the course on BP it doesn't seem like a good use of money.

Well you could buy a property with FHA loan; then your dad and you could fix it up while living in it & then 1 yr later sell it.There are plenty of other options out there and educating yourself is key.  

But I do the conitinuing Ed online, and the 12 hour courses only take me about 3 hours depending on who you use for the education service.  

Get educated or your principal will disappear.Real estate investing is a business and should be treated as such.

One of the problems that I see if that realtors (and I am a realtor) don't invest in education on how to price or value land on the mls.

You can begin by investing in yourself thru education.