Newbie here - Help needed finding rental properties!

[Lakshman K.]

Hello everyone!

When I say newbie, I have never owned a home for living or investing, that's how new I am to this. As I live in a rental property that is way cheaper relative to the current market, I have decided to continue living here for now and get into real estate investing to make some dough on the side. 

I live in Tampa area in Florida where the real estate market is hotter than the Sun and keeps getting hotter. I looked at some properties a year ago, the numbers didn't make sense, so I gave up and spent a lot of time learning about real estate investing. As they say "You make profit when you buy", and the local real estate market has been rallying up for many years now, I could never get into this with my limited skills. But I think I'm ready to get my hands dirty now. As my goal is to become a passive investor, I want to go for 'Buy and Hold' for the strategy, but been having difficulty finding properties that fall under the 2% rule category. I have been looking on websites like Redfin and Zillow manually so far. I just asked a realtor friend to set me up on MLS for automatic alerts. But, I think there's got to be a better way at identifying opportunities better and faster. So, here, I am seeking advice on how to find a rental property that has a decent cashflow potential after all the expenses, which has been a major roadblock for me so far. I have a decent job and income, zero debt and clean credit history, so getting a loan won't be difficult.

I don't have a good network and starting my journey alone, so I can use any other advice and tips that you can send my way as well! Thank you in advance, I need your blessings!!!

Regards

Lakshman