Others say it could be converted to personal use or considered a “not for profit rental” and I should not submit a Schedule E. 

House hacking will also give you some personal "property management" experience.

We also had one where the person being foreclosed on filed for bankruptcy the day of the auction.  

I haven't taken the jump into personal rental property investing yet however I am licensed realtor in NJ.

Have already screened at least 4 contractors, most were personal references.

Investors may develop their own personal portfolio of institutional properties across the country.

Don't forget that you were a rookie one time and your Brokerage EXP certainly hires the same caliber of person we do. 

Being new to the area does anyone have any recommendations on Houston REI meetup groups that meet in person or virtually?

Usually spending a few minutes skip-tracing and talking to anyone I can find with knowledge of the property uncovers the fraud if it is indeed a fake seller (most often the number that my skip-tracing software computes is different than the one the scammer is using and when I call it I get the real owner who is surprised to hear that someone is selling their property).

BTW I have 0 experience Hi AnnMarie, I personally love Columbus Ohio and as someone who works with a lot of out of state investors - there's so many catalysts for why you should invest here.