My first exposure to the idea of real estate investing and financial education came in the form of a book recommendation in June of 2014.Most of you probably haven’t heard of it, as it isn’t very well known.It’s called Rich Dad Poor Dad ;)Well it opened my mind to the possibilities, and since then I have been reading/listening to books, following RMLS listings, and attending a local REI club.I’m a full time Civil Engineer, but want to build up my real estate knowledge and portfolio over the next 10-15 years in order to transition out of a salaried position.I bought my first home in December of 2012 with my wife and now colleague, @Kimi Nord, with a homeowner’s mindset.Now we are beginning to look at real estate differently, and are looking for another SFR of duplex as a second property to owner occupy.We began our housing search in October of 2014 using a real estate agent and scouring the RMLS.We have since come to the conclusion that using this method we aren’t likely to find an investment property that adheres to the requirements of an investor, and is cash flow positive.Our new approach is direct mail marketing, and our first batch of letters should be going out this week (fingers crossed).I have only begun to explore the wealth of information on the BP website, but thanks to everybody who is making it happen!

cmc22, I consider bird-dogging personally as scouring forums to see attractive projects, then flying to that location and buying up all the property around it.

My group and I are looking for wholesalers who are willing to drive for dollars, yellow letter, or scour the listings to find us properties.

Also, scour Craig's List. 

Go to the meetings and listen and learn (as well as scour this site - excellent, FREE information here from experienced investors!)

@Jessica Geisler I actually got really lucky and hooked up with an agent who was friends with the guy selling it, and got it before it ever hit the market.But don't let that discourage you, there were a few other properties I wanted just from scouring the MLS that I didn't get for one reason or another.

I can scour the MLS and I plan on joining Marei, but are there other ways to go about finding property worth my while?

I've spent the last 3 months before I came up here just scouring through Utah to find good investment rental properties to hand over to investors in order to collect a commission.

I have been scouring Craigslist, websites from land sellers and EBay for properties that would be ideal.

In that time I listened to a bunch of BP Podcasts (thank you commute), read a bunch of blogs and other materials, and scoured the market for data on relevant info.