By beginning to look at deals that fundamentally meet your criteria 

Helping people and being a positive influence in the community makes me feel happy at a fundamental and primal level.  

A majority of all those RE acquisitions were closed without basic RE fundamentals as part of the deal causing them to play a major part in the housing crisis as they were not structured properly and/or in fragile portfolios that quickly crumbled with the first sign of trouble.Flash forward 10 years to 2016, minus the banking industry’s participation, we are seeing the same industry practices that played a major role in the last bubble.

If explanation is too lenghty, referral to any books or web references would be greatly appreciated.

For networking with wholesalers, my best bet not knowing any better would be finding whomever I can on BP and checking out local meetups, then seeing how many of both of those I can cram into a short trip in Indy.Do you use a web tool for comps, or do you know your target areas well after a few trips?  

I did not start similarly to you but I think fundamentally if you find a good deal and have done your networking properly, multiple doors will open for you.

Not that it's a reflection on his law practice, but I've seen how if we don't control what the world sees about us on the web, someone else will!

@Andrew ElmasriBelow market rents - get the rent roll from the broker/seller and compare it to rentometer.com and your study of the market rent for that property and locationOvergrown or not maintained landscaping - easy to spotDeferred maintenance on the exterior facade - easy to spotNo online presence or marketing (word of mouth or signage only) - google search for the property...see if vacant (or not vacant) units are marketed (usually on hotpads, trulia, zillow, web site, and many other sites where landlords market.  

I currently work a full time job in IT, take night classes 8 hours a week, and do web development on the side (which will hopefully wrap up in the next month or two).

I can say that I feel pretty comfortable and have a solid understanding of the fundamentals.