Any examples, suggestions, help or criticisms are welcomed with open arms.

Maybe you are early in the process and still learning, but recognizing a deal quickly is critical as is filtering out the junk without wasting too much time.

Your lender may also require you to get title insurance.Tip: As this process can be long, arduous, seemingly arbitrary, and is often critical to your homebuying transaction, try to prepare these documents (or at least figure out how to prepare them) in advance.

On these deals, speed is critical, have the conversation with your lender and get that pre-approval letter ASAP, so your offer can go in immediately!!!

I don't mean to be critical about this but it doesn't seem like you've done any homework or research on where to start.

As the others here mentioned before, it's critical to check with the local planning commission and city/county governing bodies.  

These are the tough critical questions that you need to know the answers to BEFORE you even go under contract for that first property.If your loan officer and realtor aren't working through that same thought process with you, then you're working with the wrong people.

Less cost to enter the market, less demanding tenants (if you screen them correctly), and more opportunity for value add which is critical to generating solid cash flow. 

I have listened to many podcasts and spent the last year or so periodically reading about REI online, but I figured it was time I began interacting with the community and receive some helpful feedback/constructive criticism.

That is not  meant as a criticism, simply that is not what they specialize in.