A few "Starting off" questions

[Jacob Shafer]

Hello! I have been reading this forum with pretty much every spare moment I have had since this weekend when my fiance led me to it. I think I've become a little obsessed with this idea as I can really see the long term potential here, and I have been absolutely dying for a way out of my current job so I can focus wholly on school. With that being said, there are some (a lot of) questions I haven't been able to answer from the blogs, forum posts, and podcasts but here are the first few burning ones to me.

I have been leaning towards renting out homes as I feel the most comfortable with this aspect of real estate right now.

1. Is a realtor who I need to talk to first in order to start finding some properties? I have done a lot of looking around on Trulia, Zillow, Redfin, etc. but with as little experience as I have I just feel like I'd be taking a shot in the dark no matter what I picked - would a realtor help with this or is that just how it goes?

2. I understand I need to get a lender for the mortgage, and to get that I need to get some cash together in order to put up a down payment. I have a little cash saved up, but the majority of my family is very business oriented and I know if I came to them with a legitimate business plan I could probably get at least enough cash to make a decent down payment. What I don't understand is this: At what point do I go to find a lender for the mortgage? Or rather at what point do I need to have cash in my hand or a loan set up on deck? After making an offer on a property? Before making an offer? Before going to even look at properties? I know this seems like a basic question, but I keep reading about people purchasing these homes with investor's money but I don't read about at which point both parties are locked into the deal and money actually exchanges hands.

3. After buying my first property and assuming I have begun to turn a profit, how do I go about getting another loan for another property afterwards? Won't lenders be leery of giving more money to a person who is showing that they are already in debt? I don't feel like I could just go to a lender and be like "Yeah, trust me I'm making money on that other mortgage, give me some more money".

Thank you all in advance!

[Jacob Shafer]

Marco Santarelli Thank you for answering my questions so thoroughly.
1. I will look into some real estate clubs in Dallas, as far as looking on the BP forums I guess I need to find the right sub-forum and put that I'm looking in the DFW area.
2. So I just had to do some research as to pre-approved vs. pre-qualified and I have a basic grasp of it. Pre-approved would mean they have already pulled my credit and whatever amount I have been approved for will pretty much be an exact estimate at the amount of money they will loan me. If I am pre-qualified they haven't really pulled any credit information and are just giving me a ballpark estimate of how much they think they could give me. So essentially I feel like this means step 1 instead of finding properties should be going to a lender and finding out what they can do for me, then go on to trying to find a property.
3. That's all I needed to know, thanks again!

Tom Goans
I'm currently enrolled full-time at my University and working full-time as well, as much as I would love to have a mentor or get some one on one time with an investor I just don't see that being an option until possibly next summer when my fiance graduates and is earning her steady income to support us both. I know this seems kind of backwards as I just said I want to devote as much time as I can to getting this, but I don't sleep much and I get a lot done in the 1 am-4 am time (I don't think there's many investors willing to give up those hours for me!). Now this isn't to say I'm not willing to work with anyone, I just feel like with my current work and school restraint it will be difficult to work with someone else who has a typical 9-5.
About the real estate listing agents, I will look into that more!

Brendan J.
Thank you, that's exactly what I was looking to understand.

Ryan Enos
The more and more I read into this and more advice I get, as a first investment this FHA loan is sounding more and more appealing. As much as I would like to be able to purchase something that I don't have to live in, I know how important just getting my first investment off the ground is and this just may be the easiest option for me (not to mention if I could work out a duplex where I ended up with free rent that would let me build up my cash reserves a lot more quickly). I'll probably be private messaging you again shortly!