From the variety of answers, it's clear that it is personally subjective (as it should be) based on personal income, current cash flow from your portfolio and the historical track record of the region (the Great Recession provides us an excellent model). 

Excellent! 

So, going small to start will reduce upfront costs, and allow us to build necessary relationships with lenders/contractors/agents in order to get better financing and pricing options on the bigger deals that we'll do later.Here's a good, hypothetical, example.

It’s all about connections, how you get your deals, having the right client base and providing excellent service.   

I have seen some investors with the list in an excel spreadsheet but I’m open to any and all recommendations on how to attack this massive list.

I spoke to them last week for the first time and I am working on getting the second phone call and building the relationship.

@Aaron Klatt- excellent point Aaron I have a question for you as a specialist real estate agent Is Your TItle Beneficial ?

Private money would be good option, but its relationship based transaction so dont count on it.

@David Casas You have got excellent feed back here.  

excellent