I look forward to learning everything I can about real estate investing, with an emphasis on purchasing rental properties.

Some don't care about the borrower's income, but put a lot of emphasis on their credit and experience. 

And to not get burned when investing with an emphasis on appreciation, you need to understand your market down to a gnats-*** level of detail and watch it like a hawk. 

While it's not lucrative and only 1-2 spots are booked for the majority of the year, that's been without any real emphasis on doing this as a business.

At that point, your FICO score should be less of a factor as you'll be using portfolio lenders that give more emphasis on the asset and your experience.  

Emphasis on knowing your numbers.. a cash buyer(the one you assign the contract to and is actually going to buy it) will expect you to have run the numbers and save the cash buyer the time, that is the value you bring to them as a wholesaler.

Now, the fact that he is an investor means you may have put a little too much emphasis on his "motivation". 

I like #3 especially with the emphasis on BE ACTIVE in your real estate meetings.

Both of them put a lot of emphasis on value add.

We offered 603K and I told my wife we have a really good chance of getting it because most other offers are going to put too much emphasis on the list price and anchor around it.