The other is finding a realtor who wants to work with an investor, not just a traditional home buyer.

It's an asset that produces an NOI, thus there are cap rates; or do you just mean that there aren't traditional benchmarks?

This also means we are not likely to be able to buy both a home and an investment in parallel since prices seem to be quite high here and we'll most likely be going with traditional mortgages for both to start off.

There are plenty for sale by owner and traditionally sold house in that range with huge potential.  

Excellent area, good cash flow, 100% occupied.Accepting any funding types considered including hard money, traditional, private funding etc.

I can not go the traditional route and take out a loan at a bank for my first investment. 

3) Should we pursue foreclosures, short sales, and traditional on-the-market properties?

Came out of High School and thought about school but never chose it cause a quote that got me thinking that was: "Traditional education teaches everything except what matters.

You have to really look at the relationships and a host of other things to see if they all align with your vision and interest.Below, is a link to a recent post by @Christian Brodin that I thought was worth saving for reference.

@Christian Hansen is probably right.