Depending on the amount of capital you have to invest, you could probably find a healthy business with growth prospects looking for a cash infusion.

Buy a house, advertise it for rent, hold an open house, take applications, screen your prospects, and sign a lease with your new tenant.There are several books and websites (biggerpockets.com) that will help with the details, but in a few short months, you'll know more than any course or guru is going to teach you.

I was in the process of going through CL (we buy houses ads), searching for prospective investors to add to my buyers list and I came across one, PeachHomeBuyers dot com, that boasts that it can purchase any home even if the house has no equity and/or is upside down in value.

It was always something the prospective buyer or real estate agent would point out when we didn't include them in our rehab.

I guess with an REO you could do that a bit easier (despite it being in bad faith and probably illegal), but how do you do you get owner occupant equity sellers to let you show their place to prospective tenants?

Thanks to everyone for the great responses, I'm digesting every bit and reading up on the rest.I have another question, I had refinanced my previous residence with a 15-year mortgage, if I decide to rent it out, would it make sense to refinance it now for 30 years to improve my cash flow prospects?

Do I need to work with a broker to qualify prospective tenants?

Quickly call back prospects who meet your pre-screening qualifications.

You don't want them to mess around the property when you show it to prospective tenants, or worse yet - after the new tenants move in.

I found 10 that would be good prospects for myself.