Study to get your license, whether you activate or not.After learning the fundamentals you'll need to understand marketing and lead generation.

@Dan ChoWelcome to BiggerPockets the best Real Estate site on the web.

I see my area being in a bit of a bubble...look at the 5-year trend here: http://www.movoto.com/new-orleans-la/market-trends...so i have backed off considerably in the last 18 months. now most of what i get comes from city auctions, sheriff's sales (also has gotten very competitive) and tax sale redemptions...just the occasional whopper of a deal makes it onto the market, but they are rare.I am selling into this market now....prepping a few places for sale but keeping the ones that give the best return.i should add that the stuff i bought at the peak was still good fundamentally. the rental returns were solid, and i was leveraged at the time, so I was able to wait out the downturn and still make good money.

Fundamentally, it's not a bad deal financially, depending on the deferred maintenance needs (if any) and the functional life of the major components.  

Check their web site.Large group of good people helping each other.Maybe I will see you there one day.Gook luck.Fixer Jay DeCima

He gives great advice to people who have multiple debt sources and need to learn the fundamentals to simply get out.I don't believe Ally falls under this category because from her post we can infer that she:- Has savings- Creates positive net income every month- Has no other debt besides student loansIf the OP plans to buy a house at some point in her life, there is no better time to do it than now.  

@Lindsay DennyHello and Welcome to BiggerPockets, the Best Real Estate site on the web.

When screening out-of-state applicants, I've sometimes had to pay a small fee and sometimes had to go through a simple registration process (depending on each Municipal/State site) - but nothing that has been overly burdensome.I'm not sure what's offered in your area, but a quick Google search with terms like "(area in question) court records" or "(area in question) public records" should yield some info.I don't know what tools Cozy.co uses to screen applicants, but twice they approved applicants that I turned down - based on information I found with a less than 5-minute web search.

Every time someone tells you it can't be done, all you have to do is point them to this web site to see the thousands of people already doing it. 

Although I moved to a smaller, boutique brokerage specializing in property management and investments, the year I spent at KW provided a fundamental foundation in real estate practice, managing your own "business", contract law, lead generation and industry news.