Quote from @Allison Craft: Prosper is very expensive in my opinion, especially when starting out.

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.

I'll start with the largest learning curve. 

I would start there and then see if they are worth the shot! 

At this point I can't fathom spending close to $100k in repairs and potentially being right back where I started.

i found in my build projects that started just before and continued through the pandemic prices rose. everything but lumber became sticky IE they rose but did not fall..

I think the first place to start is evaluating quality deals.

Starting with a single-family can be a great way to start especially if you’re looking for a lower-risk starter project where you can get your hands dirty and learn a ton by doing.

You can start to educate yourself on the individual components; how much does it cost to paint on a per sqft basis or what is an average kitchen remodel.  

When I was getting started, I watched a ton of real estate podcasts on YouTube there's a wealth of knowledge to be gained from YouTube University!