As with most people starting out - having the 20%-30% equity to put in the deal is the challenge. 

Some people will contact you directly about your property, but a lot of people post housing requests and you have to contact them.

Often people overthink this.

I'm hoping things move a little more quickly once things go vertical as I heard getting slab poured is the longest wait but I'm assuming there is a labor/material shortage in general in the area so wasn't sure of people's timelines once slab has been poured?

There are 2 types of people who dog on Detroit.. 1.

Now here is some advice many will disagree with me on but I firmly committed to this:  Most people that use a VA loan shouldn't.  

W2s, personal homes and K1s are usually straightforward and can be DIY-ed by most computer-savvy and financially-savvy people.

Most people are not rich there, look at the cars. 

Ok so a diff path then my previous post.I also wanted to invest in real estate but just assume( and bet is probably true) that most of the people that find truly good investments have  either or all of the following the most "average joes" don't:1.

@John Lasheri agree with you, you'd be surprised at how many people listen to Grant Cardone though, and decide that they're going to go buy a 100 unit with 'OPM' as their first deal and quit their job.i think buying something of that size with a few partners is a perfectly good goal.