I haven't read it but @Brandon Turner's book on no or low money investing will have some good tips for you.

do they have any referrals or a book of past projects that have similar performance?

Where is your commitment, even 1k is nothing, I too would have turned you down  STOP listening to " gurus " and reading books,,,,,,,,, All the best and good luck 

I'd say to learn from other people mistakes it is a good idea to network with like-minded investors via local REI clubs, listen to REI podcasts, and read books on the relevant topic.

Wife and I are getting ready to make first major purchase and I wanted to share something that happened.After many months, I finally convinced my wife that the road to success will require us to downsize from our nice $250,000 single-family home in North Central San Antonio into something more modest, like preferably a live-in duplex or four-plex.

I’d HIGHLY recommend the bigger pockets book on managing rentals.

So basically I got some quick question's mainly out of curiosity more than something I need right this moment so looking to get into student and want some good books/podcast I could learn from or some advice anyone reading this has.

Finally, when you want to sell you will have the same difficulty as the current seller has: discount the price or offer seller financing (which if you have debt on the property already you might not be able to do).So if you can live with all of that you might have an opportunity to take down a lot of units with a small down and seller financing—and it might be a good cash flow play—but be cautious about how you get this down payment.

As a final note, I am also an American abroad, nice to see others not letting it stop them from investing!

After listening to countless podcasts, reading tons of books, and spending ~1 month analyzing deals, I feel like I'm ready to make my first move.