New to Real Estate Investing and need advice!

[Tyler Santos]

I am a 34 year old executive assistant for a small scientific instrument company in Boston. My younger brother (32) and I have been doing a lot of reading and studying various investments vehicles. We have both decided that real estate investing, in particular, buy and hold rental properties for cash flow, is the route that we would like to go. I know this is a vague question and topic but I'm looking for advice as to where to start. What kind of tools should I be utilizing to analyze deals and what types of properties should we be looking into first? I'm currently watching the deal analysis webinar but I learn best by doing and by practicing. I live in Boston and have strong ties to Vermont so we were thinking it would be best to look in those areas first. I guess I'm just looking for guidance in getting started and what steps my brother and I should take first. I'm also just looking to build relationships with people who have the same interests and who have more experience and knowledge than I do (which is basically everyone on this site at this point). Any advice would be greatly appreciated!