Regarding renting a room, the biggest thing is to be aware of the landlord-tenant law in Portland - it is very restrictive and considered unfriendly to landlords (whether you are renting a room or renting the whole place), Tip, for rent cost, look on platforms like CL, Airbnb, hotpads.com, etc.

Does anyone know of any useful tips or strategies to make connections with wholesalers/agents that could provide distressed properties so I can create a pipeline for my business?

A pet peeve perhaps....but too many decorate their places like they are hotel rooms.

I have also looked into borrowing for a down payment whether its from a personal loan, hard money lender, family, credit card cash advances, etc.Are there any recommended tips, products, BP webinars/podcasts that address this kind of situation?

Yeah, not so much in reality, in reality the life of REI is basically everyone and everything is out to eat your lunch, and you gotta be smart, fast, strong-like-bull and tip-toe through the mine-field. 

Currently, I have access and have completed some of the Adventures in Commercial Real Estate Accelerator Program, an extensive real estate financial modeling course, covering topics and modeling such as direct cap, key risk/return metrics, income statements (retail, hotel, office, multifamily, industrial), leases, waterfall models, acquisitions/development models, etc.

This will be for the DFW area of Texas.Thank you so much in advance for any suggestions or tips!

One tip for finding contractors is the look at recent deals that were just flipped and go to the twp and figure out the contractor who pulled the permits. 

Any tips and guidance are appreciated. 

Any suggestions or tips please advise.