I am beginning to get my ducks in a row to start searching for real estate properties to start my first fix and flip and am looking for trusty, reliable contacts to provide deals in my desired areas.

@Abraham Anderson  I always say to not focus too much on what kind of asset you are going to buy but to go where the deal is.  

If the LLC he is desiring is a single member LLC it is probably disregarded and he could sell in his name and buy in the name of that LLC.4.

Decide if you want to go the turnkey route or not. 

Thanks guys, I think the answer is to go with the original answer which is to pursue financing after renovations are completed and the property is leased at improved rents. 

Any suggestions about leveraging the 1st property to go for the next one?

So I decided to go with that and ballparked about $27 k in repair cost broken up as the original $24k plus $3k for plumbing issue.

Being a newbie and working with an inexperienced realtor, my transaction failed to go through the 1031 exchange process.  

How to go about finding an agent that is legit?

Is it OK to "go through the process" with 3 banks and have them compete against each other on rate?