I will take a look at events near me and try to attend a few.

They hold monthly investor meetups and offer tremendous value to everyone involved. https://rarebirdinvestors.com/You can head to the events page (Network > events) and search Portland and you will find a slew of events!

Not to mention how well the stock market has been doing lately: The S&P 500 surged 29% in 2019, its best return since 2013.In previous discussions on here, I've noticed that some people can be quite opposed to anything other than investing real estate (specifically the stock market, traditional retirement accounts, etc).

I understand that having 5 properties with 20% down as opposed to having 1 property with 100% down is riskier. 

You can find events near you by going to the "Network" option in the menu above and then picking Events.Here's the search I just did for Dallas: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521-events-and-happenings?

If anything you can explore southern NH and western MA where prices are reason as opposed to going many states away. 

Every single one of the above that I know of, I know of from a networking type event, where a rep from that bank was pitching me for volume referral business (not one-off consumer direct), I don't know that it would be easy for a consumer to find one of these, perhaps your go-to local loan originator for the 30YF stuff has been similarly pitched, just like I have been, and can pass a name along.

Even though I had seen him at networking events for years I wish I would have been more diligent in screening 

If you are looking for more networking events throughout Atlanta and more.

There are a few places that might make sense outside of the usual meetups or RPOA events, but I'm hesitant to throw out friends' contact info without knowing if it might be a match for them.