Something else to consider if you have the spare space...  

I could buy a purely income property that will give me a better foundation for the future, and live in a mediocre rental (or my dad's spare bedroom, but no thanks).

Keep stashing away from your w-2 job, resell things on Craigslist/eBay/Amazon, sell crafts stuff on Etsy, rent out a spare room on AirBnB (if you own your own single family home), do some freelance tasks on Elance or Taskrabbit - all to accumulate funds for that first downpayment.And all the while, attend some local REIA meetings to expand your network list.Hope this helps!

[Watch those movies] I've [had] virtually no financial success.I'm no guru or mentor, but I think I am becoming a decent tutor.What I'd suggest is: 1) Get a new free e-mail account like gmail, or yahoo- it can be something simple like CoryTheInvestor@ or corybuysre@ 2) Get a free, spare, or inexpensive extra phone number.

We use common sense with a little room to spare when we analyze our leads.

I want something I can make a little income off of and fix up in my spare time in hopes to flip eventually.

I was also wanting to buy a foreclosure or auction for cheap and work on that during my spare time.

If you have a few spare days of your life to waste yes feel free to contact the bank and follow it up the chain to the foreclosure office who will most likely tell you that it is in their files but they won't have a price for it for months and that you should keep checking equator.com for the address (or whatever their website of choice is)Otherwise keep your eyes on it and wait, keep any realtor friends you have checking for it and maybe set some Google alerts.

Built 10 years ago and no expense spared, it's a beautiful place with lots of amazing design features.

Just don't give the tenant the code or the spare keys will be gone.