Hi Aaron,
Generally, you need three things to buy a property. You need money, you need a deal, and you need to know what you're doing. If you don't have one, you better have the other two.
I recently purchased my first property, a 4-plex, and I basically used none of my own money to do it. First thing I did is exactly what you are doing: educate yourself. This is the #1 most important thing you can do. The BP podcast is awesome, read all the books you can get your hands on, and then after you're exhausted of reading and you feel like you know it, then move to the next step. The next thing I did is I started surrounding myself with people who have done it and are currently doing it. As Jim Rohn often said, "you are the combined average of your 5 closest friends". So if you hang in circles where people are buying houses, flipping houses, and renting houses, then pretty soon you'll be doing it. Yes you'll get connected, yes you'll learn more, but MOST importantly, you will start to truly believe that you CAN do it. That YOU can do it. It takes knowing people who have done it, and watching them do it, for that thought to travel from your mind to your heart.
Then, after all that, the next thing I did was find a deal. Now, deals are hard to find, but you will only find it if you know what you're looking for. If you skimp on the first two steps, it won't happen. You need to know your stuff. Once you have a deal and you know what you're doing, then the rest is easy. The money will come. In my case, I found a good deal on a 4-plex, got it under contract, put the whole deal together, then got my brother to buy in to the deal. He funded it with his heloc, we renovated it over the summer, put in tenants, and now we are refinancing to pull out the initial investment to repay the heloc. I wish I could say it worked perfectly, but we had all sorts of problems. Some came from me being new, others could not have been foreseen. But ALL of them were learning experiences, and the deal is a success.
Long story short; Educate yourself and surround yourself with the right people, THEN look for a deal, and finally look for the money (in the form of partnerships). Honestly, all of this takes time, so in the mean time you can improve your financial situation in any way you can. Credit, income, savings, learn money management, etc. Do anything and everything you can, and always keep your eye on the goal of R.E. Investing. It will happen.
