I have Money saved, but I would like to avoid using it if I can, so I have looked into Hard money lenders as the quickest option, I would like help evaluating if it makes sense to use that route of financing. 

Then,  evaluate the risk and define an "affordable" ROI.

So that's another indicator to review and evaluate.

On the side of building a portfolio of investment properties in the future, I'm evaluating getting a job in Real Estate too because I'm passionate about the industry and because it can be a path to learning as much as possible about Real Estate generally while earning money, save, and then invest myself.I think it's Ok to ask for advice here, so here it goes.

what evaluation programs are you guys using to determine the best mix of price and utilization? 

So glad you've discovered Bigger Pockets early in your real estate investing journey...and it looks like you've already made some good contacts here from your area....A few tips that may be helpful to you here on the BP website:You can set up keyword alerts so anytime someone posts about KC, Enterprise, or any of the specific markets you're evaluating, you'll be notified.

I am evaluating some of my first potential buys, but I could use some guidance to determine when a property is not a good deal because of the parameters of the property or when it is not a good deal because I am expecting to have my cake and eat it too. 

In 1 year I was able to pull out all of my investment and then some (40K in total) as the property was re-evaluated at $150000.

I’d appreciate some advice on determining an amount for monthly rent when running the numbers on a deal. I’m primarily looking at SFRs that are not currently used as rental properties. So there isn’t a current,or his...

I recommend looking at and evaluating a number of properties before buying.