Analyzing deals for beginners

[Thomas Truman]

I am new to real estate and am trying to get my first rental property. I've watched videos on how to analyze deals but I'm still running into some problems. First of all I don't know where to find deals to analyze. I know there are ways of picking up houses from direct mail and calling, but for the purpose of practicing, where would I find deals to analyze without access to the MLS. Second, I'm not sure how to get an accurate estimate of what houses will rent for. I know there are estimates on zillow and sites like that but I want to make sure I'm accurate. Another thing is that I'm by a college and want to try to rent by room. How would that change the rent and how would I know how much to charge if its by room. Also how do you find out zoning and more information on how many people can live in the house. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.