@Wesley Childers Welcome to BP, Wesley.
Educating yourself is the best start, which you're doing. Browse the BP forums, read various books, and listen to podcasts for a while to get a sense for the opportunities you will want to pursue. Your answers around budgeting (including taxes) are best answered through those sources, honestly. There are a lot of ways to make (and lose) money in real estate, so pick a focus and start with that. For example, do you want to focus on cash-flowing rentals to pay your monthly bills now, or pick up long-term wealth-generating properties (like high appreciation) that may not pay out much monthly? How much capital do you have to get started? What's the radius around you that you'd consider investing in? We can't answer these for you, obviously.
Considering out of state investing (which I do), I'd recommend David Greene's book on long-distance real estate investing as a primer. You'll need to find a market with properties to match your strategy, but more importantly, a trustworthy and capable team (agent, PM, contractors, etc) in that market. They are your hands, eyes, ears--all of it, really--on the ground, and will make or break you. I personally invest in OKC and now Kansas City, while living near Seattle; the market up here doesn't make sense for my personal strategy of building recurring cash-flow. After we've achieved financial independence, we'll likely switch gears and focus on building long-term wealth, which will likely mean different markets and different property types/strategies.
Good luck.
