I'd rather see you learn by doing, investing that $30,000 or so and making some mistakes, than just spending it on education and ending up with nothing but a little knowledge.You can also check out LAREIC https://lareic.com/   or maybe if you live somewhere else another local club. 

You should certainly speak with a real estate attorney and then double check their solution with a CPA. 

It would definitely depend on what kind of rental you're looking for if it's in Sarasota (want to make sure I'm the right fit to best serve your needs.)

I recommend you checking the Midwest market. 

.- Review Historical Permits: Check with local building authorities to see if the previous owner obtained the necessary permits for the repairs.

Check out the BP meet-up forums for Cincinnati, Ohio area and you will see "Real Estate on Tap" and can see the information for each meeting hosted and the topic based on the speaker.

I am diligently saving/scanning/uploading receipts & importing transactions from a rental-specific-checking linked bank account.

Check out NARMP.com

My team and I are looking to partner with muti family investors around the  country, whatever it looks like, we specialize in acquisitions and have been wholesaling for about 5 years, we would like to start as equality partners and bring deals to others we have systems to hit a lot of leads and experience in talking with all kind of seller's, we would love to bring vulve to others and slowly build up and eventually be full  time in real estate.

Check out my latest Bigger Pockets blog on why all debt is bad.