Newbie in Dallas

[Summer Bohannon]

I am a south Florida transplant to Dallas.  I would like to eventually make a living from real estate (cash flow) however my first focus will be to take what I can come up with, find a deal, make money, and reinvest, so I can build up the experience with the cheaper properties and hopefully cheaper mistakes.  I do not hate my job and know it is good to keep it so I have a stable income for financing (pay is low but enough to pay my living expenses so I can reinvest all profit), but the time I spend there takes away from time doing real estate so eventually I'll make more spending the time on real estate, and will have the experience and numbers, to convince the lenders.

My income meets my bills, but not much more.  I know I need to raise my income, and pay down debt, but how else do you prepare?  I have been reading the newbie articles along with some random ones, and the ones in my emails, and signed up for the 90 days podcast Wednesday night, though I know I am more than 90 days out.  I would like to educate myself and be able to start looking or at least considering a deal beginning of next year.  Or start analyzing deals as I know that will be a time consuming item that simply takes experience but I don't need to be actually ready to analyse them but then how do you get the info to analyse, I hate wasting peoples time asking for info when I know I'm not there yet.

 I have a couple of ideas of where I want to go, but I'm stuck in how to start.  The obvious thing to me (and probably to everyone else, so I'm not sure there are as many of these properties as I think) is to buy undervalued properties and sell them, and just do minor things... like painting that I can do myself and that are quick with minimal holding costs to build up cash, and ability to get financing.  My only funds right now would be credit cards but I want to save those for the inevitable items that popup, and would be where I get funds for unexpected holding costs if selling takes longer than expected.  The other one which appeals to me is a small multifamily, I like the idea of spreading risk, and living in one of units, possibly rehabbing it to, though that would be at least a year away (living elsewhere).

I was a paralegal in Florida, not much value job wise here in Texas but I am familiar with a lot of the legal terms and contract terms.  I used to work for a tax/estate planning attorney so I understand  a lot of the concepts but has also led to a sort of analysis paralysis where I know the various options but don't know enough to pick one but that also depends on what I end up doing, which niche.

The things I've said I know are what I've picked up so far, please correct me if I a wrong on any of them, and this is already longer than the samples so I hope I gave enough information. (I am on chapter 4 of the beginners guide as well).