To practice I have been perusing zillow/trulia/njmls and then crunching the numbers in the below excel file I found on BP.

Spend some time every day on Bigger Pockets by connecting with “colleagues,” perusing blogs and videos, and engaging with others on the forums: http://www.biggerpockets.com/meet9.

There are tools available that help you do this, a few free, but most require pay per use, subscription or an active relationship with a vendor, such as a title insurance company.

There is a slight learning curve to understand what is possible and the structure but the most you will pay is $35 a month per user which will allow you to have automated workflows that can send emails for you, generate PDF documents(leases!!!)

There's a Notes and Tax Liens forum here that is probably worth your while to visit and peruse that might answer some of your questions concerning notes. 

Is a nice hidden gem of a book.You may want to peruse the Book Store at the Society of Exchange Counselors.The late Jack Miller has a ton of material on Creative TransactionsWhen you have reached a level of comfortability ( give yourself plenty of time), I highly recommend taking a Peter Fortunato class to get your brain twisted on how to focus on create good deals not finding them.Best of luck

She then peruses a mold claim extorting a rent rebate out of you and then threatens you with a law suite if you attempt to non renew unjustly.

Hello All,I am currently an undergraduate at Stonehill College perusing a finance degree and I wanted to ask some people with experience where to start in this business.

I haven't perused anything at this point.  

Or have I drawn faulty conclusions from my perusal of Zillow?