Kind of like my mortgage on my house. 

I want to have one lined up early enough in the process, but not so early that I get texts / emails every week to check out homes when I'm not ready just yet. 6) What kind of programs or options for assistance as a first time homebuyer in TX are available and should I be starting them now (well in advance of any time limit deadlines that could crop up if I wait)? 

In your pre screening you ask:1) Do you presently have a pet of any kind.2) Do you foresee acquiring a pet of any kind during your tenancy.3) Is there any possibility you may need to pet sit someone else's animal.You then inform them that if any animal is found to be in, or has been in, the unit for any reason they will be evicted or assessed a $1000 fee for every occurrence on a per day  bases.Some are stupid but most applicants believe that landlords are so desperate and so dependant on needing a tenant asap they think landlords will ignore their own rules to accept a good applicant.

I am currently a business student and I have always been kind of interested in real estate investing, but have always been told that it's to risky and therefore just began to realize that the people that think it's to risky are also people that don't own ANY real estate(with the exception of their own home) so....

It's kind of an open-ended question, but really the criteria for "out of state" shouldn't be any different than if you were buying locally.

It's kind of hard when you're not actually doing.

Are there contractors that specialize in this kind of thing?

Rather it matters what kind of return you can generate over time.

Was there any kind of subdivision, was this already a separate lot?

Anything you buy as an investment - if we define investment as increasing your overall financial stores, i.e. getting more money out than you put in - has to gain more value than its present day value, meaning that we have to believe that what we are buying is being sold at some kind of discount relative to its potential.