A mortgage lien and note are surely only one way to handle private money, especially when taking a loan from family / friends, or when a private money lender wants you to keep the loan out for subsequent flips. 

@Darren Sager hosts great meetups (complete with industry leading guest speakers) in Manhattan.

Specifically looking for the marketing, but more importantly the steps and leanings for what to do with those leads once I find them - all the scenarios... seller financing, big rehab projects, negotiating with different sellers, learning how to make the right offers...

I was curious if anyone has used a VA effectively to generate consistent leads?

Ive been looking into automated software but every one of them Im sceptical about hidden costs and sharing my leads.

I have leads coming in but due to my job I have a hard time following up in a timely manner.

I have listened to a lot of the podcasts and read a lot of books so I know about the other sources of getting leads but I have a VA loan to use to buy my first property so there are some pretty specific restrictions with that .I'm using the VA loan because I have no money for a downpayment so FHA and conventional loans aren't an option.

Any ideas, suggestions or leads would be much appreciated. 

I find I usually need to go through about 100 leads to find 1 with enough money.

Aside from that and other scenarios that lead to cash flow negative real estate, and assuming no changes in employment, DTI should never be an issue with a real estate investor.