@Lance WoolvertonWelcome to BP nation.You've come to the right place for REI education and networking.There's a tremendous amount of opportunity here if you will take the time to learn and then put that knowledge to good use.The biggest asset you have going for you is your age and willingness to start now.Take advantage of that situation by learning what values are in your market and being able to confidently identify a good deals.You should know your market backwards and forwards before risking your money.You should explore if you are cut out to be a landlord.It's not for everyone.You need a certain personality to be successful at that strategy.As far as utilizing your home equity to assist in doing deals.You may have about $40K in equity if I understood your situation correctly.That's a start but you need to have other debt paid down and cash reserves for rentals.Bankers like to see your capacity and ability to pay down debt to extend credit.In short educate yourself and gauge your spouses willingness to support and possibly assist you in this endeavor.It's a lot easier if the spouse is on board.I'm in Owensboro,if you want to meet up sometime let me know.Ohio Valley Real Estate Investors meetup is in Newburgh IN the second Tuesday of the month at Turoni's Pizza, if interested.Good luck

Here's a question for you David that I like to ask a lot of people- what's your favorite way to identify investments?

If the initial scoring is middle of the road, put it in a holding pattern and concentrate on the strongest applicants.  

This means honing in on what works in your area (and what doesn’t) in order to identify the best leads.

Personally, I need to identify a market and need to figure out which neighborhoods match up with my plans. 

When you know your market, you can identify a deal, lock it up and flip the contract easily.

You don't know how to screen and identify a good or bad renter, so the information you glean from a screening system will be pretty useless.The best way to maintain a positive relationship with a client is to ensure they are served well by a professional.

In a perfect market risk = return.Now the trick is to identify where the market is inefficient at pricing risk, and exploit it.

I spoke to some other owners and they have been seeing similar patterns.

Never heard of someone focusing on parking lots, but I would think your best bet is to drive for dollars and identify vacant lots.