My main goal now is to put together a team for when I really get started investing.

I don't get the attraction of points over pure, hard cash back on the cards.

If you know of any Cali REIAs that deliver actionable/meaningful/relevant content to their members, and consistently attract serious, experienced investors, please drop them in a comment below.

The main skill is: finding "deals". 

That being said, there are three main apartment building brokers in the country, two being ARA and CBRE, so maybe you could take a look at that.Regarding the meetups, you should be able to find a good multifamily investing meetup/club where you can connect with like-minded people that are in the same niche and have the same interests as you do, like the Miami's Multifamily Investing Club down here in Miami where I live @Lennon Lee  if you don't find it in Ellicott, you'd probably find it in the nearest biggest city, like Baltimore for example.Hope this helps!

I've noticed at least for the Chicago area meet ups are mainly driven through meetup.com.

My post is about recommendations and mainly for small landlords in NY.

I too have a few units where credit history isn't the main screening criteria, but they're not in the 'hood'.

Are these still the main players and if so, who would you recommend?

Mainly, I'm looking at areas where I spend a decent amount of time due to visiting family.At the moment, I'm looking at West Missouri (closer to Kansas City), Atlanta, and North Alabama.