I am currently working for an underground gold mine and I love the work; however, I am somehow always drawn to real estate investing and find myself browsing the web for beginner advice and how to get started.

(Nikola Tesla devoted a great deal of his life to achieving this “free energy” machine)I won’t tell you that you can’t do it, but I will tell you that it’ll be a heck of a lot easier to just pass the cost of electricity on to your tenants. 

mailers, web ads, yellow pages, signs... how are you going to FIND deals...? 

Owners don't walk away from $50K + in equity.Go to the recorder of deeds web site and check for liens on the property AND any others against the owner (judgment liens can be hard to find.Something here is not right.

Here's one of 50+ that I received across the inter-webs from a single tenant.

Not a lot of useful info on the web site. 

I've worked with my mom's company doing digital marketing through web design and social media management.

It also includes common forms that you can edit and use.Their web site is a free resource with links to your state law but I highly recommend the book for some of the practical advice they provide.

There are many additions that you could research around the web but for free and with an eye on local use Its great: http://my.mnbar.org/residentialrealpropertyforms/viewdocument/rpf41-minnesota-standard-residentia

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."