Ask your employer if you can have your pay split up into three deposits, one to investments savings, one to your checking account for personal use on a daily basis, and one to an emergency account you can tap into so you don't have to tap into your investment savings.

I personally have no connections with anyone who is involved in this niche and I'm wondering how other people have started their journey.

I have personally worked with @Wale Lawal and he is awesome. 

Quote from @Jeff Sanders: Personally coming from an agent/investor in CA, I always get a quote from a broker of mine and make sure I am knowledgeable with the fees/costs.

My wife and I have overhauled our personal budget to reflect the 'pay yourself first' approach (allocate in order: income comes in -> invest -> donate -> fixed expenses -> variable expenses -> fun $$).We are looking to see what experienced people generally recommend for a holding tank for that 'invest' allocation while we target our first real estate deal.What financial vehicles have you guys used that works well for this?

A more realistic expectation is 24 hours which will ensure we can arrange any repairs or corrections with a team, handle it in person, etc. be curious how this plays out as I worked for local developer for a while and developed several properties in Alexandria (Specifically old town) and while the city is challenging like any city - they were mostly realistic.

I heard that if you move the personal mortgages to an LLC they could get called and we would want to avoid that3.

We make people take photos of themselves holding their ID and then I also meet them in person for the showing - at least for my units on the NW side of Chicago.I've never heard of these testers, but I am not surprised. 

In my personal experiences a lot of structural items start with bad drainage.

I let the booking expire and figured it was a troll.I then get another request from the same person about a month later for the same dates.