I’m here to learn as much as I can, meet like-minded people, and get advice on making a solid first deal.

With enough knowledge you can make a educated decision on which approach you take.My experience:I personally don't sign up for any program who take you aside during events and try to sell packages that is just blatant sales strategy.Once you sign up there is every attempt to make you sign for their programs for bookkeeping, registered agent, LLC or corp setup fee which have ridiculous even with platinum membership.Basic standard structure they suggest to take advantage of multiple deductions can be easily achieved by proper education or work with a good firm like https://wcginc.com  who is local to you.A umbrella C-crop to manage all other LLC properties and take advantage of many tax deductions that are not available with a llc, its also used to take losses up to 100K as startup expenses and dissolve the entity after few years.Few LLC entities for investing in Real Estate, etc preferably in Wyoming or Nevada ( you can find many companies online who can do this for $150 compared to anderson $1500-$3000) , they will claim they have a secret Operating agreement which is bogus.They certainly try to take advantage of tax loopholes and claim to be smart people, my view they are just taking advantage of numbers as per their own statements.

Great bunch of experienced and helpful people. 

Too many people try something for a short time and are looking for the magic bullet strategy but the true winners in real estate are those that do one thing a bunch of times over a long time periodHope that helps!

I think our cooler climate and fresh water resources are going to attract a lot of population in coming years, especially as CA/FL become impossibly expensive for many people. 

I would not borrow from ANY lender I learned of over the internet unless I knwe personally people who had used them. 

People just make sure they have all that they need when they head out.

I'm quite new as an investor, but with three books by Biggerpockets authors under my belt and plenty of enthusiasm, I'm ready to keep learning and to connect with like-minded people in my area and beyond.

Don't agree one bit with that statement and Im getting a feeling that most people in this thread are inflating the struggles I've been facing.

You could give them a thousand bad reviews, if they are the only person in town offering a specific type of product, people will still do business with them.