Start networking meet people with money, make your self knowledge about a market and niche in market, put a project together and presented to the investor for sweat equity I started out like this.

We started out with "sweat equity" and now focus on 80% brain equity and 20% sweat equity.Our brain equity is dealing with short sales, foreclosures and other more "gruelly" transactions.

I renovated the property for $75,000 cash and a ton of sweat equity. 

In the near future, I'll be searching for a mentor to show me the ropes while I put in some sweat equity to gain traction and confidence to land my own deal.

I've done dozens of deals myself over the past 10+ years and every one of them I've had to put in a combination of my money, blood, sweat, and tears.

potentially turning my passion for real estate into an investment reality instead of just a bucket list line item.VERY interested in learning more about sweat equity, House Hacking, and duplex/triplex investments.

If someone had less $ then do it as an overall percentageSome people like to use sweat equity or finders fee to get more ownership.

You should be willing to put in the sweat and hours as needed with this approach.

(I set it for Florida counties for you: https://publicrecords.netronline.com/state/FL )Once you identify the owners (or in the case where it says the owner is an estate, look on google or legacy.com for an obituary which will provide you with the heirs) use a skiptrace tool like skipgenie.com (who has a cool price point of $99/month for unlimited searches) to find them and see if you can make a deal.By taking these basic steps, you will learn how to actually identify deals, which will be invaluable over your career.On the other hand, anyone not willing to put in this specific sweat equity, will ultimately be robbing themselves of valuable experience and might not be right for this industry in the first place.I truly hope this helps.

Use the VA loan and buy a nicer property that I would have to move into with my wife and dog, with less likelihood of getting a good deal and putting the sweat equity in it that I think will be my upper hand starting out in this game.