Now that we have defined the process, its time to start with the fun stuff...As investors, we try multiple techniques to turn prospects into leads,  and ultimately customers...

I ultimately have an idea of places that I would like to live, but just wanted to see what people thought from both an investing aspect as well as enjoyable place to live.

I would also take some time to read the BP Ultimate Beginner's Guide, I found it very helpful when I was just starting to research real estate investing.

@Dmitriy FomichenkoUnderstood, and I do know that I am ultimately and totally responsible for my IRA. 

If you take a personal loan from your 401k it would be making 5.75% return, but it you turn around and lend this money to some other investor who needs the money and can make 10-12% return, tax deferred, I think the latter is clearly more beneficial to your 401k and ultimately to you. 

I gave him the same parameters and when one of the places I found matched one his results gave me I decided to look and ultimately made an offer on it after an inspection.

He has a great story about one deal where he put in an offer way below asking, had the agent come back multiple times asking him to come up on price over the course of several months and ultimately got the deal (with a big profit built in) by sticking with his original offer based on his due diligence.

I've had all kinds of offers come in where the buyer ultimately didn't even come close to qualifying for the purchase and their true financials where no where near what they initially stated.

And while your long term plans are to ultimately open your own brokerage, you can "get into the game" by doing something that has proven to be very successful to me in my years of investing, and that is sending offers to owners directly.

I have since watched a couple podcast episodes, and started reading Rich Dad Poor Dad and the Ultimate Beginners Guide.