I’m a grown man, 35 years old, and not ashamed to admit that Brandon’s song about his daughter brought tears to my eyes.

As an introduction, I'm not the most organized person. 

I previously worked for a non-profit developer and the developer's you want to work with will not only be established, but have experience working with various tools and funding sources particular to non-profit organizations.

Interestingly, there have been several BPO's done, with walk through and everything, and the highest, and most recent value came in at ~580K.The failed Short Sale was actually approved by the servicer for $480K.I suspect this has to do with the Non-Performing status of the mortgage, my mother's age, and Massachusetts being a tenant/occupant friendly state.I had to terminate the arrangement of this Short Sale when I finally acquired unbiased legal/realty counsel, and realized that the sizable return (700K - 475K = 225K) would not only be an act of fraud for us to receive, but that the buyer was likely misleading us into thinking we would get this money.Since then, I really started doing my research, and am very interested in pursuing Real Estate Investing thanks to all of the hard lessons I've learned.I organized an off market pool of cash investors, and showed the house and took offers. 

Organizations certified by IREM tend to be better.

I would also recommend a good general contractor who has a good eye for things and is organized, I pay mine $100 to go look at the distressed property and take a walk through video and tell me what needs replacing such as subfloors, mechanicals, roof, ect.

1) Avoid Wasting time - (like pretending to do "research", or "organizing" or "reading up on investing";-) Do MAKE OFFERS!

Farm Credit is an organization that loans out on farms, but you would need that down payment. 

I started meeting with a realtor in my area weekly to help her with monthly mailers and organization.

If it is the church or some other organization signing on that doted line, make sure you are comfortable with it.