But flippers crash and burn when the market tanks.

I live in fat northeast philly not far from Franklin mills area 

Once I hit my target monthly rental income I'll snowball all the mortgages, get fat, and smoke more cigars.  

I have read a couple of books, attended Rich Dad Poor Dad seminar (the first mistake I made),  I have a burning desire to start to invest in real estate, but have no clue on what to do first.

If this has been going on for years then you may need to reduce your commitments or workload as you can and will burn out sometime in the future.  

Might search installment contracts on BP, hundreds of posts, they are a different animal.Interesting seeing opinions on seller financed notes and the institutional which will be safer for beginners, the SF side is more profitable and the risks are easier to manage when you buy from the originating note holder.When investors feel better about the market, many may return, especially if they get burned in notes.

Burn out is a real problem

You will get burned in commercial if you don't.

Google street view is fine for seeing the area, but buildings burn, are defaced, torn down, etc. and the Google pictures can be 3-4 years old.

Few investors I know have been burning through a lot of contractors lately.