How soon should we start looking for rentals?

[Hunter Forney]

My wife and I are at the very beginning stages of real estate investing. So new that I just got my first set of books in the mail to start learning this whole process. We have narrowed our focus down to either renting out a single family home or buying a duplex, living it one unit and renting out the other. The question I have is how soon should we start looking for these properties and when to start talking to real estate agents? We know we want to buy within the next 8 months and we only have about $20k saved up (the goal would be to have at least a $40k down payment).