There is actually a meetup group meeting this evening in Kansas City.https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521/topics/565840-may-2018-kansas-city-meetupI am in the same boat as you and am planning on attending and meeting some local investors.Maybe I’ll see you there!

I would encourage you to use the search feature in this forum. 

If you know of any good books, articles, or forums to read up on please refer those as well.

I need help finding umbrella insurance, and I've learned there's no better place to ask my RE questions than on the BP forum!  

@James Orr Absolutley I will try to keep the forum updated on the progress.

@Akeem Wheatley The subject has been beat to death on BP.https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/519/topics/24...It boils down to this...If you can put your money into an asset growing at 6-8% and you can get an immediate line of credit against that asset at 4.5% (prime), then anything you can do with that borrowed money that earns more than 4.5% will be adding value on top of the original asset.

My apologies, wrong forum to post this on.

I thought I'd tap into the forums and ask about a real-estate situation that seems to come up more than once, in Los Angeles.

I love this forum with everyone's input.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/12/topics/157014-how-to-research-real-estate-markets