I know @Steven Hamilton II who is very active on here has a second office in Florida.

I'm hoping to bridge my theoretical and macro-level knowledge with the real colour and nuance that comes from being a hand's on and active investor and owner. 

Keeping that 0 deals in mind (and actively looking at making my first), how should I approach this situation?

@Matthew T.To fund any kind of retirement plan, you need earned (active) income.

@Sanjeev KaushikI agree with @Dawn Brenengen, you'll see the ones active in the community and they'll stand out.

To find the local wholesalers, I suggest doing some research into what local Real Estate Investment Associations (usually via Meetup.com) are available and actively meeting.

The CPA you spoke to was right, there are tremendous tax benefits for what the IRS calls "real estate professionals" The basic criteria is twofold: 1) you must engage more that half of your 'working' time in real estate related activities. 2) You must spend at least 750 hours involved in RE.What is considered real estate involvement?

Not deal breakers.I'm currently an active retail mortgage originator, amongst a couple other things, but Its been my experience that working as a wholesale account executive from 2000 until 2016 and being on the backside of literally thousands of loan closings since the inception of the newest regulations that I can recall only one instance of a set back caused by cents on a transaction, but that was early on in the Dodd/Frank era and was the result of software, that was subsequently fixed by an addition 3 day waiting period, because that was the safest play for the lenders ***.The take away here, again just in my opinion, is on the front side of the transaction, write the offer at whatever it takes to get the contract done, then hand it off to your favorite lender...they'll figure it out. :)

Hello BP fam, I have a couple questions as I’m actively working on purchasing my first investment.

There are so many cool and exciting things going on.