I know we live in the day where you can just find on line more and more of the information you used to get from  a good realtor. 

Again, other might feel differently here.b) Skin in the game: as a conservative investor, I understand that the dirty secret of industries that the waterfall compensation is in the line with me and incentivizes sponsors to take more risk.

It depends on your end game on how you should go about this.

Most will require you to have skin in the game.  

I'm looking a small MF in Tarrant county now...really out of SFR game....

What is the best for signing leases online?

I am still getting used to how much of a numbers game this is, failing 30 time to find one in a hot market.

Or you can learn by reading, listening, watching, and still find that you would be 10x farther along if you had just started by  connecting with the right person from the beginning.Find out what kind of area you are interested in investing in, put the funds together and say here's my skin in the game, then connect on Connected Investors, BP, local facebook pages, local reia meetups, and elsewhere.

Hey all, I'm a new investor who has spent the last [too long] getting educated and is looking to properly get in the game.

I haven't yet seen anything that talks about the improvement requirements to qualify as you alluded to, but this is a game changer.