Another thing you should do is to locate your office with a minimum of distractions.  

Office location for your activity and few distractions is very important.  

Shop around before deciding.Stay on plan and watch out for the shiny object syndrome too because things will distract you along the way.

You need to start inside your head, reprogram your thinking with constant uplifting, motivating books and audio, turn off the boob tube, 86 sports, and other distractions, and listen to some BP podcasts as there are plenty of people making it part time. 

Don't get distracted by how big REI is.

One other thing you should do might before you get very far is to look at office space that you can afford and has few distractions.  

One other thing you might consider is to open up an office that is convenient for you and has few distractions.  

It ought to be convenient for you and have few distractions.  

I feel that focusing on being a realtor would give me background and I could do a couple sales to get a feel for it; but since realtor experience isn't as useful and applicable to investing I think it would be a distraction compared to doing anything real estate investing related (knowledge, networking, practice). 

(this will help keep you from getting distracted or overwhelmed).  2nd tip...Read the guide as suggested above and let me know if you have any other questions.3rd tip...Have fun.