I'm a Realtor licensed in IL and IN and I own 14 of my own properties. 

Disclaimer: While I’m a licensed attorney, I’m not your attorney.

On the other hand, several states require a license to make business-purpose loans.

All in all, this is exactly why you connect and establish a business relationship with an experienced investor-focused real estate agent who will shoot you straight. 

Some are not even licensed realtors.

An update one year later after this post, I now have:- Got my property and casualty license and wrote 370+ policies in a year- Saved up a few more thousand dollars in investable cash, paid off $20K in debt and raised my credit score by 100 points- Launched a direct to seller cold email marketing campaign and generated leads for cheap- Got connected with a few real estate investing communities like Subtle Asian Real Estate and Pace Morby's SubTo- Aggressively read and studied as much as I can get my hands onThat being said, I decided to run a marketing campaign to generate distressed seller leads in Phoenix, Arizona, mostly because:1.

For all methods you would want to find a market that has strong employment rates, strong income rates for the market, and is a growing or an established market. 

I told him if this interested him he would be better off obtaining a license and joining a brokerage.  

Establishing a good local team will be crucial for you. 

Once we identify a location that meets our criteria, we network with builders, property managers, lenders, insurance companies, CPA's, attorney's, etc. that service that area to have the entire team already established you need to be a successful investor regardless of your physical location or experience level.