Rents have gone down since I started my research.

It could be a great option for your client's needs, or at the very least, a starting point for comparison with other lenders.

Start with BiggerPockets Ultimate Beginners Guide (free).

Do you also use Redfin/Zillow as a starting point? 

I am excited to start building my portfolio and learning all I can.

That said, even with conservative rental income estimates, my living expenses would eventually drop to several hundred dollars less than what I’m currently paying in rent once the house hack starts generating income.I do have cash reserves to weather some rough patches, but the idea of pushing my budget this hard makes me uneasy.

I started working foreclosures in 1978 after a one-day seminar.

Hi Aidan, when you first started you can create your partnership agreement per deal depending on what your end goal is for the property. 

I have couple of lists but not sure which one to start with. 

Focus on absentee owners and start with the ones who live the farthest away and only own one property in the area since they have the least use for the property.You can also drive for dollars, looking for anomalies of disrepair and then look them up in the tax records and use a site like Spokeo to do cheap skip tracing.