I purchased these 2 properties at auction, so I had to use HML since it's considered same as cash and closing is under 30 days.It still works for me because I am coming to the table with less cash upfront than if I were purchasing with a conventional lender putting 20-25% down and paying for all of rehab out of pocket.

So, if I were you I would find someone you are interested in partnering with that has experience in the day to day of managing properties they own.Now, if they bring the experience, and are basically the reason the deal will be able to happen, they are going to want you to bring something to the table.  

I was recently watching a video by Brandon Turner titled "How To Analyze a Real Estate Investment From Your Kitchen Table" and, coincidentally, I am sitting at my kitchen table.

How do you Find buyers in your area and market for your projects when your new to the business with a very small marketing budget and tons of deals on the table.

Investors like safe deals with high returns, if you can bring those to the table the money will flow.  

There are some books as well but I haven't checked how many are free vs. pay now.Usually I recommend RIREIG at this point in a welcome message but you've obviously been going for quite a while - glad to hear you've enjoyed it and hope to see you at the upcoming "landlord round table" meeting next month!

I wondered why the City of South Bend would hire an out of town company for the study until I looked at their national client list which includes over 450 reports for builders, developers, cities, non-profits, planners, investors, lenders, small companies and development subsidiaries of several Fortune 100 companies.You can read the report here https://www.southbendin.gov/sites/default/files/fi...The report is mainly about the residential market potential of downtown South Bend but the gist of it as it relates to your question is that on page 5 it states that approximately 60% of the households in the entire City of South Bend are owner occupied and 40% are tenant occupied.The US Census Bureau data confirms this with their latest data showing appx 59% owner occupants and 41% tenant occupied here:  https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/PST045215/...

I hope that getting my license first will help me bring something to the table when it comes time to find a mentor.

Should be easy to grab an outside table with a small group and we can then talk about creating a meetup and the next steps.  

As I stated before everyone needs to be able to identify what they can bring to the table to make something happen.