Rent to Own option (Newbie)

[Jarrel Smith]

I Moved out to Tampa FL because I had an opportunity to work in the construction field with Carpenters doing things from framing to renovation work. Here's the situation. I know a homeowner who wants to find a house out in FL to help me move into and potentially own. The problem however is that he only wants to spend about 50,000 max on it. I don't have the best of credit and I figured I wanted to start getting into real estate investing and owning my own properties one way or another. My question to you is... Where could I go about finding these properties? I hear alot of "Off-Market' type things but I never seem to come across anything. Should I start looking at HUD's? REO's? Pre-Foreclosures? FSBO's? Im not 100% sure as I have never invested before so If anyone have any advice im all ears.