I'd start by looking at homes online and just driving the neighborhoods.

I actually started flipping with little money and then transitioned to wholesaling because my goal is to build an active business in real estate, and for me, wholesaling was and is more scalable and profitable than flipping.People tend to think wholesaling is easy based on how gurus portray it online, but it's not.

I want long term gains and goals, with the only short term goal, being to pay for my personal mortgage, after all expenses of the rentals are taken care of. 

Thanks,Ratna what everyone mistake is some people is stuck in h1b for decades and they are too afraid to buy primary home, or to buy rental in US or even to apply mortgage which at the end, makes them losing the biggest opportunity to make money in real estate.In reality it doesn't really matter as income from cash flow is a passive investment, you could do even flipping business while on h1 as the profit is from buy and sell activity. 

I WILL keep this short.I am 23 years old, me and my Dad have been investing together over the past 4 years in real-estate....we just closed on our first deal which was:275k Home which we bought for 255k......That home is nice but does not cash flow and just pays the mortgage. 

I would suggest working with a mortgage broker instead so you have as many options as possible. 

or, you could house hack with a $3000 mortgage and collect $1400 in rent. 

-Should I put the property under an LLC (pay higher mortgage rate, but better protection against lawsuits) or keep under my name?

The most obvious is that you will be able to offset your mortgage with renting out a few rooms.

Cash-Out Refinances(B) Maximum Mortgage Amounts(1) Standard(a) Maximum Loan-to-ValueThe maximum LTV is 80 percent of the Adjusted Value.