I think your first step is to educate yourself thoroughly on different passive investments that produce consistent income.

I'm trying to use real estate to put myself through college, do you guys have any tips that could help me become more efficient and produce results faster?

Is it producing hot water2.

Option 1 doesn't get you into real estate investing unless the property you're buying is income producing.

The banana producing republics decided “cartel” monopoly was such a great idea they tried it with bananas rotted and it took sixteen years for banana consumption to get back to where it was before the attempt at monopoly pricing.

I am trying to figure out a way to start my real estate sales business but still be producing a consistent amount of active income until I am busy enough to live off commissions.

The only thing you forgot to say is, How much income does this investment produce?

If this is the case, I have this new idea to produce leads.I thought of targeting homes on zillow that have been listed for at least a year, and instead of contacting the agent, trace the property and contact the owner to try to make the sale myself.

I get the "1% rule" is a common guideline to follow with income-producing properties and the market may be tightening a little bit making it harder to find "1% deals", but there are  plenty out there.

Since I'm looking at many projects at a time, defining "one" project, or even five at a time would be too costly to produce project specific PPM's.