Buying first home/investment property

[Ricardo Alvarez-Malo Jr.]

Hi All,  Been wanting to get into real estate investing for a quite a while and recently been planning on buying my first home and looks like the the two might merge.  

The opportunity for my wife and I to buy her fathers house at a discounted price came up.  It needs a lot of work and we are planning to buy it, rehab it, live in it for a short time as we save up for our next home and then rent it out.

Next step is I want to meet with several contractors to get a better idea on rehab cost then finalize the purchase.

My question is about the process of buying the home without a realtor (for sale by owner) since the sale would be just between my wife and I and her father.  It's totally new to me so not exactly sure on the steps.  Do I need a real estate attorney? Title company? etc.?

Any insite/advise to the purchasing steps or any other part of the plan is much appreciated.