WI: Starting Investment $?

[Abigail Ford]

Hello BP!

I recently made a cross country move to Wisconsin following my college graduation. This means I'm not overly familiar with the local market (I would like to stay local for my first investment[s]). I have been reading and studying rental property investment and have saved up $20k to get started in my real estate journey. I am interested in achieving steady, passive income so that I don't have to work full time anymore and can be a stay at home mom. I currently work for a property management company who oversees condos, and am onsite in the office to help residents. I would love to be able to manage my own property but definitely need to learn more about what goes into that. I have set a goal to have purchased a property (I am looking at either single family homes or a possible duplex/triplex, depending on what I discover as I continue to study to the area) or at least be actively looking at deals before the year is up. 

My question is: what ducks should I have in a row before making the plunge and purchasing my first property? I would like to have some savings left over for personal emergencies and other misc. costs - so I will continue to save. What costs should I expect, other than a down payment and closing costs? Are there any ballpark numbers to know I've saved a comfortable enough amount? Do I need to have established an insurance policy, found a management company beforehand, etc? I'm basically just looking for clarification on the sequence of events I should be following.

Thank you in advance for taking time to read/reply!