Each time you do this you likely only need 3-5% down if you are buying it as a primary house.  

We used private money and seller finance for acquisition, raised rents, renovated one building, and sold each building separately as 4 unit buildings.

It just met this week, but meets once a month. https://www.meetup.com/polk-county-bigger-pockets-meetup/The other is Landlords & Lagers... it meets the 3rd Tuesday of each month at Cobb & Pen in Lakeland.  

They think every other deal they come across is priced $50,000 below market value2.

Get a lender, enter into contract, close escrow, enjoy your new home. if you have less than 30 days, you would need the seller's cooperation to contact the foreclosing entity to see if they will postpone to give you time to close the deal. it's not guaranteed and the lender is under no obligation to do so but if everyone wins (seller sells, lender gets paid off in full, you get a home), most lenders will provide a small window of time to get it done.

I know a few people doing deals whilst in college too.

I also think I am dealing with August in general.... and as a northerner miscalculated the start of school in my head. 

Understand the fees involved and calculate the total cost for an entire year of management so you can compare the different managers.

Deal Generation: What strategies have you found most effective for generating deals and identifying promising investment opportunities?

BP has various tools to help you analyze your deals (rentals, flips, wholesale, etc). : https://www.biggerpockets.com/investment-calculators7.