Rookie investor

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I am a new investor and I would like some helpful tips from seasonal investors. I am 23 years old, just getting out doing 4 years in the military. Iv'e saved up about 40K, and im debt free. I'm currently living in South Florida. I have college paid for and living expenses pretty much taken care of for the next 3 years as I have a job. I'm trying to be smart with what I do with the money I have. My goal is to use it to produce passive income. I understand I can buy a cheap 70Kish property and receive roughly 1k a month in rent. With rent, less expenses, I can make roughly 200 dollars a month in positive cash flow. Is this a smart thing to do to begin with? Once I do that I can repeat the process and slowly start to make more and more cash flow while paying off the equity in the properties. 

I also have a question regarding online auction sites, like Auction.com in particular. I understand doing due diligence on the property before hand. I know I can check public records for liens against the property. When I check for liens, does that include every lien like utility liens, or code violations? Also, I would like to understand what the Judgement amount means in terms of what me the buyer of the foreclosed property is forced to pay? I have heard that the Judgement amount doesn't matter to me the buyer unless it is less than the bidding amount. Is this correct? I appreciate any feedback. Thank you for reading.

-Jason