A year or two of doing these three things will put you in good position to begin the next step.You may say, "A year? 

I will be curious what others have to say, as I’m a newbie to investing :)

Then that’s the value of the property.Let’s say NOI is 50k. 50000 divided by say a cap rate of 6 (.06) gives a value of 833k

WHEn you say a homestyle reno loan, do you mean like a 203k?

How do I know what adjustments to make to the comps when I'm analyzing deals...I understand the concept of adjusting values on comps, I'm just unclear about the actual value of, let's say "a bedroom", "a bathroom", "car-port", etc. 

It happens all the time for multiple reasons.I’d say a typical tenant stays 2 years in a house and maybe 1-2 in an apartment, depending on class

You say a 'specialized farm and ag lender.'  

I suggest locate something smaller, say a 6 to 8 unit or a 4 plex (which you can source a 30 year fixed loan on) and work your way up.

Meaning I buy say a 8 units from seller A that he still self manages for 500K which is all CG and Recapture for him, and he in turn buys 50% of 6 duplexs I have that are worth 1M.

Let's say a couple friends and I want to invest together, and all three of us live in different states.