Start by making relationships with the top brokers in the area. 

Depending on the relationship between you and the family member, you might be able to avoid transfer taxes.

Similarly, I am curious as to whether a mentor should be in my immediate location or that a long-distance relationship would suffice.Any advice and insight into the validity of my thought process would be much appreciated as well as the best practices I should be taking to find a great mentor! 

Use this opportunity to begin a relationship with that mortgage broker or mortgage banker associated with that bank. 

Build a sample deal package, take it to lenders, get preliminary approval and establish a relationship.

That's a great way to start a relationship with a bank.

We learned the power of relationships and getting in front of the seller to sell yourself and what you are trying to accomplish.

How soon is too soon to look for agents on these forums to establish a relationship for something that is going to happen in reality closer to 2022? 

@James Galla what I mean is, for previous work, there was never a charge for coordinating maintenance, I have witnessed them with the most recent bills for similar work and was advised that this has always been the policy, and when I advised of the previous work and never a maintenance "coordination fee", I was advised that those were waived (believe this is a convenient excuse to squeeze the orange as hard as possible, seeing how this relationship is circling the drain, or to start charging when they should have previously - I believe it's the former).

How Did We Find the DealThis is a property we found through our relationships/network.