Real Estate Investing Newb's Distractions Distractions

So I've started this REI Journey with some friends. We are off to a very slow start. None of us really have ANY IDEA   what we are getting into. One day we decided " we gotta do something better, something in which we can help people, help the community and make a living off of that". We fully believe we can help people by finding good places to live that are well kept, help the community by keeping properties well kept, and selling or renting good properties is a good way to make a living. 

That day we said this together we scheduled meet ups for us. I had been perusing the internet a lot at that point and had found BP. I directed my peeps there and we met for the first time in late October early November. We started reading the Ultimate Beginners Guide, which had some excellent pointers of where to go on BP for information and how to get started.Now the holidays hit fast and hard this year becoming big distractions for all of us. So we gave our selves 2 weeks to read the UBG. We basically finished that been then we were knee deep in the holiday distractions, and I had run into a big financial legal burden. Well I made a huge mistake and got into trouble, not related to real estate but it's definitely making my financial world, and personal life harder to navigate. But i'm determined. I schedule the meet ups within my group, and they've acceptingly let it go on break until i'm ready to meet up again, which should be this next Thursday ( 18/Jan 2018).  

Now that i've been sort on a break with the meetings with the team, i have continued to read some. Currently reading The Book on Flipping Houses  by J. Scott (Bigger Pockets Pub). While i'm doing this i'm looking for more books. I'm getting discouraged by the books. The first place i go is the negative reviews to see what they say. Many of them are from real estate investors that say they are seasoned. They say things like this is no more than fluff, or there is no step by step info in these books even when the books advertise they are step by step. The negative reviews are far and few between but i'm just worried they may be true!  I'm willing to invest some money into education though and i will buy some. 

Any how this is the beginning only. I hope to write some more.. Eventually i'll put some details about what happens in our meetings. I'll even try to get my peeps names in here and let you all get to know them. We are small group that is serious about doing this but together we can be challenging group because we are good friends. I've seen the mixed bag of thoughts on Friends and business. Scary but i think we can do it if we stick to our "Why" and become passionate about it like we are about being friends.   

Let me know what you all think of this in the comments. Advice, questions all is accepted, we want to here from you all at BP.