I'll fulfill the gaps with reading after.

I've been turning wrenches for a couple years and have been presented with a good opportunity at my current job, but the more I think about it, I just can't see myself having a successful, fulfilling career in the automotive industry.  

To get a property's full potential on a cash on cash return, would getting it 100% financed fulfill that goal? 

There was no career path that interested me and no simple paycheck that I found fulfilling.

Thanks for the reply, I am planning on making it an owner occupied investment to fulfill the FHA requirements.

Not an absolute requirement, but taking title as the owner and passing it to the vendee after the contract is fulfilled is riskier then taking a lienhold position in the property.

Since you will be buying as investor, your earnest money is non refundable no matter what.......unless I guess that HUD can't fulfill their end of the contract for some reason.  

I work full time as a branch manager for a major bank and am realizing that this is a job that will not help me live a fulfilled life and my dream is to one day transition to being a full time real estate investor.

I can't imagine what would happen if they were managing a tenant, much less how they would attend to fulfilling their contractual obligations to their lender.With that,  I want to close by saying that we must all scrutinize strangers wanting to do business with us, applying due-diligence to the information they provide, regardless of their online reputation.  

You have come to the right place to fulfill your real estate investing curiousity.