You are taking a great initial step to educating yourself about real estate and working toward implementing what could be a life-long income strategy.

I am no longer pursuing any further higher education and I really want to start putting the money to work for me instead.  

I just want to hit this question with multiple angles so I understand how to structure the deal in an educated way as oppose to looking newb(Although I am).

You just need to get educated, via podcasts and forums on this site, and then jump in.

I found out that  one of our duties as property owners is to "educate" our tenants about the importance of rent first above all other financial concerns.

Going to clerks at the courthouse may be the softer landing and a good educational exercise on how to pull those leads.

I will try to post the original proposed legislation and other commentary here so that readers can educate themselves as much as possible.

The proper guidance and education is. 

This is how you will start to build your 'team' of real estate professionals.Lotta resources and free information here, educate yourself on what strategy of RE investing you want to pursue.  

I would start by reading a lot of the education pieces on BP and network with as many people and member you can.