From my very general understanding of the area it is an OK drive into the outer ring of WDC.

Other methods are driving for dollars, door knocking, wholesalers, wholesaler deals that fell through, craigslist, Realtors, FSBO sites, expired listings, put out bandit signs, billboards, newspapers, other offline publications, home health care, hospice, assisted living facilitiesYou can use pay per click/adwords, motivated seller website with SEO, facebook, Linkedin, Youtube, and other forms of online and social media marketing.

Getting into business or real estate is no different than any other skill, the same way you learned to drive.

Getting into business or real estate is no different than any other skill, the same way you learned to drive. 

@Vijaianand Thirunageswaram thank you for your confirmation of the material prices being a driving cost factor at the moment.

I'd suggest starting out by driving for dollars.

So out of pure embarrassment I started to learn what it meant to run a real estate business.These thing are the best things I learned. 1) I'm doing this to improve my life and the lives of others2) These people are my clients not my family or my friends3) If I don't quit loosing money get out and leave it to others.4) This is way too easy to be hard.My first situation was rent collection. driving hours every month to collect rent, sometime 2 and 3 times just to find no one home.

@Forrest FaulconerTake a drive through Philly or any major city for that matter and you will see plenty of available and cheap housing.

Parking will be 100x easier for you if you plan on driving anywhere and you may get better bang for your buck/better neighborhood class.

Here's the problem... 1) I can not offer on publicly listed properties without proof of funds2) I do not want to promise a homeowner of an off market property the world and not be able to follow through3) I have had challenges finding a partner willing to take a risk on me (someone with little experience, some knowledge, & a lot of drive) without a dealI feel like in order to attract an equity investor with my level of experience, I need a deal with so much margin they would be crazy to say no.