From there I was able to leverage it by living frugally and have seed money.While there is lots of information on how to invest with little or no money down.

We probably need a better description of the area but could you remove any fences and paths then cover with dirt and seed?

If you're making $500 per month vs. losing $500 per month it's a $1K swing that could seed (or accelerate) you next property purchase.  

Through this club I have made connections with a professor who generously offered up to $50,000 in seed money to fund my first real estate deal.

I had the stump ground out and some new soil/seed put in.Hope this helps.

:) The problem with that strategy is it ties up my seed cash in one home for a year.

Due to the company I work for being sold we will be getting a fairly nice retention bonus, I'm thinking of using this as seed money to start investing in real estate.

It is a culture that has taken a while to create and weeding out a few bad seeds, but we have accomplished it. 

I imagine that before you would use the return on the claim as seed capital, you would use it to attempt to recover your damaged investment.

Or I could cash out my pension and walk away with $180,000 seed money to start my REI career.I have been in the study mode for more than two years and have not felt ready to start buying my first house.