Just starting out in the real estate investment game

[Will W.]

My name is Will. I have a ton of questions but here we go....

I am interested mainly in buying and holding, learning about that first, then getting into flipping and tax liens somewhere down the road. I have about 20k saved. Looking to use creative financing though because I'm not interested in dealing with the banks and their stringent rules.  I work, I just don't have a steady "job". I do a lot of 1099 work, so I heard banks aren't really into that.  

I am in the Seattle area now, I have a friend who is in Utah, who is also looking to get into investing as well, so I'm not sure if I should stay here or start there. My goal is to find people facing foreclosures and work out a deals. Ideally, my first deal would be to find a place with 2-4 rooms and rent them out while I live there. I want to learn the whole process from being a landlord to dealing with contractors. 

Right now I'm about to order some books to get better educated on the process. In the meantime, I hope some people that are in the same boat as me or people who do this routinely can point me in the right direction. 

Here are some books I'm planning on buying. Are they good choices? Will they actually teach anything of substance? 

1. The Book on Investing in Real Estate with No (and Low) Money Down

2. Building Wealth One House at a Time, Updated and Expanded, Second Edition

3. Build a rental property empire

4. The Book on Rental Property Investing

5. The Book on Flipping Houses: How to Buy, Rehab, and Resell Residential Properties

6. The ABCs of Real Estate Investing: The Secrets of Finding Hidden Profits Most Investors Miss

7. The Millionaire Real Estate Investor

8. Long distance real estate investing

9. Land lording on autopilot

10. Unofficial guide to managing rental property