I have thought about this many times and would like you to chime in on whether you feel it would work or be a complete waste of time.Expired Listings: I have access to these as an agent.My thought was to knock on these property owners doors or send them a letter with the following....I will purchase their property Cash and pay to fix it up to get the highest market value.  

Create a 'change in venue', by that I mean, look for Commercial Loans where your credit and DTI are not the criteria for granting the load. 

A paid employee may act on behalf of the company and most likely will not need a license, you'll need to how all the requirements for a paid employee, commission only  might cut it f you're meeting all the other requirements for an employee.Again,  anytime someone on here mentions "Agent" or "Broker" or "license" the assumption goes straight to real  estate agency........that is not correct entirely, the formation of agency relationships is formed by law,  has little to do with a real estate agent, you can be an agent to buy a car,  truck load of shoes, trees or lumber, just about anything and the "Laws of Agency" apply to these relationships.If you have a formal written partnership with A and B then you may skate  past the license matter as both are buying, they must close together,  then B may sell their interest to A and walk off.

I feel like I been wasting my time.

So would want to talk but not waste your time or mine.

My wife and I also have a crap load of student loan debt (approx 580k @ 7%), does it make sense to pay that off before investing or is that just limiting my future income by doing that?

A good start could be to load a photo of yourself.

Check out meetup.com and search for "Real Estate" - if it is anything like Dallas, you will find a truck load of local groups. 

But I have bid were the opening bid was say 100k someone bid and the next bid up was the bank itself and jumped to say 150k.. giving one the impression that the bank is bidding above their opening bid.At least here in Oregon we really don't focus on the Judgment amounts or I should say at trustee sales we just focus on the opening bid and what we are willing to pay for it.. at least I never wasted a minute trying to figure out what the bank was actually owed since its a moot point... in a trustee sale you don't get a judgment.

(http://www.propertyradar.com/)Its a good way to find motivated sellers so you know you're not wasting your time with someone who just happens to like living in a dilapidated house.