I don’t have any prior experience with real estate would would be the best way to get started that wouldn’t be too much of a financial risk here in the Las Vegas area 

We then paid the company after the work was done.We planned to fix up the rest of the house as we could.After several months we realized the friend that had offered my a wife a "dream job"  was in financial trouble and not able to pay her.

Current market rents appear to be higher than the 5% cap that his lease extension allows so it would be financially rewarding.

I ended up paying $3K in fines and now I am having him prosecuted by the NY Attorney General's Office of Financial Fraud.

My dilemma is that I want to have access to mls and properties but I don’t think it would make financial sense to have to pay broker fees if I am only buying 1 or 2 houses per year for now.

I believe this will help our family not feel as we are sacraficing as much in this path towards financial freedom . 

AS for owner occ homes or new construction.. folks buy those on need and emotion.. not on financial return calcs.. 

Hire a qualified eviction lawyer.Your tennats goal from this point forward will be to live free for as long as possible, to do that he will use the courts to his advantage and file extensions and appeales aftr every ruling.Hire a lawyer immediately and make sure he has experience dealing with professional tennats. 

They are telling the current owner that he can not apply because he bought the place and knew that it was a single at time of purpose but that as the buyers, we could argue for financial hardship because no one would buy a 5100 sq ft SFR.

Congrats on being on the way towards your financial freedom and investing!