Hey all my name is Erik Petrovich and I am excited to pursue my second career in real estate investing and sales as an agent after serving 26 years in the military. 

And I agree with most, better to have that quick conversation with a lender to make sure you are pursuing the right types of deals or price points etc before you get out there and spin your wheels making offers etc.

I'm not interested in investing myself but hoping to network with someone who is genuinely interested in pursuing perspective opportunities. 

I'm flippin' excited you found BP ;)Great list of reads....a few other things that may be helpful to you here on the Bigger Pockets website:You can set up keyword alerts so anytime someone posts about any of the markets or real estate niches you're interested in pursuing, you'll be notified.

At the moment i am just concerned with being able to purchase/invest in a property as i don't think i will get full-time job in like 2 years or so (maybe later because i think i may want to take some time off after graduating pursuing other things) and i would like to start doing RE as soon as possible but it seems that there is no other way besides co-signing or doing trying to file income under tax returns as kevin mentioned and hopefully i will get approved by a lender

We recently finished paying off our house and increased our HELOC limit to allow us to pursue more investments.

If not, I absolutely wouldn't pursue a deal that large. 

I am finally spending regular time on pursuing the goal of owning revenue generating properties.

No one can predict the future, but if you'd like I can send you a market update of how Neptune real estate is performing YTD compared to other nearby towns.If you do decide to pursue Neptune, my office just listed 3 properties there (one single family, 2 multi family) all at 60-65% of assessed value and for $175,000 and less. 

You might consider pursuing some of the egregious damages the tenant did if you can prove the condition of the house before they started renting.