Of course it would be fantastic if I could buy rental property that appreciates greatly but that would not be my main primary purpose.

@Diamond Howard if you are considering working as an agent as a professional career, I will tell you this: it's a fantastic job, with a lot of highs and lows.

I think I'm going to try reaching out to school/programs first and then perhaps call local brokers.The idea of free online accredited courses and groupon are fantastic ideas that I had not heard of but am certainly going to dive into as well!

@Dawn Brenengen - fantastic referral, thank you.

@Adam M Drozdowski, fantastic way to start investing!

A lot of forum members are experts in their respective fields related to real estate investing, whether that is real estate sales, wholesaling, flipping, buy and hold investing, lending, self-directed IRA and Solo 401k investing, or tax and legal guidance.If you haven’t been to it already, the Bigger Pockets blog features links to their fantastic podcast and many great articles: https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/The site has quite a few tools that can be helpful for new members.

Janna Walsh with Mikki Moves was my agent and did a fantastic job helping me purchase site unseen and Tara Johnson with Summit Funding was instrumental in helping me make sure my finances were in order for the VA Loan.

I worked with a fantastic lender that had was able to underwrite the deal as a 2nd home, as long as I agree to stay in the home 2 weeks per year.

That is fantastic if you keep your turn over costs plus vacancy costs low. 

If you have a triplex that is valued around 100k you are doing FANTASTIC.