These set 8-5 hours are for the birds.

If you do not want the life of an agent but still want to do real estate, then look for successful investors in your city and become their bird dog (or property locator).

Most lenders like to see you have some "skin in the game" , so may need a down payment and some closing costs at the very least - however , there are still opportunities to wholesale or bird dog which does not require down payment money but may be a lot more difficult without a marketing budget.

Fixing old doors is for the birds.

All of my successes and failures.I wanted to ask though, should I start to work on getting properties under contract myself or do the bird dogging thing to get started?

 Wholesaling & bird dogging are not illegal!  

This just takes your time and a bit of marketing (which does in fact cost money if done effectively).If you aren't certain about diving into wholesaling you can always just network your butt off everywhere you go and build some relationships with investors that would throw you a finders fee for bird-dogging some properties out for them as well.

Kill 2 birds with one stone.  

Birds of the same feather flock together.

I've heard in order to find a mentor, it's always best that I offer something in return to the mentor (working for free, bird dogging, etc.)