We, as well as our wives, have recently stepped up our efforts in our real estate investing education, and look forward to making our first deal as a team.

You will get incredible knowledge on how to research, identify, build your team and learn each area's specific challenges - for example cracked slabs in San Diego, Foundation issues in Texas, Termites in Atlanta, etc.As far as wholesaling, the quick answer is to pay a local wholesaler to bring you a cash buyer.  

Should I have funding in place first along with a team prior to starting..

As long as the broker has customers like these there is no incentive to take a chance on a new buyer with no track record of closing.If you are looking to create a relationship with an MHP broker I would suggest calling up the most junior broker on the team and meeting with him/her.  

The support team is awesome and very responsive.  

It is a great resource and there are many locals that you can network with to build a team.  

Its a team event and if one leg of this stool is missing or lacking, you're likely to fall flat.Chris

This is great - congrats to the BP team!

They don't really have many classes or team activities that a broker like Keller Williams would have. 

I just moved to Denver from southern California to be a part of the BiggerPockets team!