Ive heard its a step by step process, so my question is in regards to knowing what type of target audience to send mailing pieces too.

This was step 1: knowledge is power and reading this book is helping me move forward. 

A great buyers agent will be able to help you fine tune your strategy, highlight market trends, knows where and what to look for, hook you up with the best lenders, inspectors, contractors, etc, get you the full background on a property and the sellers, knows how a particular property compares to other deals and what a great deal looks like, identify untypical risks and knows what to look for before you waste time and money on an offer & homeinspection just to cancel the deal later, get the lowest possible offer accepted, oversee the transaction and handle all the paperwork, including title work and appraisal, knows how to approach a short sale differently from a REO, negotiate inspections and repairs successfully and help you make more money, safes you time and lower your risk every step of the way.Sounds like you signed with someone who provides value by knowing lockbox numbers?

What steps did you take and where is it now?

It just seems like it's so dangerous to even attempt a friendly conversation about someone else's financial situation because of the potential for stepping into a hot mess legally.

The government seems to be two steps behind and reacting to the problems of the last decade and doing the right thing for the majority of people or the economy in general in the present.

Step 1 is to show up to as many networking events as you can, and Step 2 is to talk to as many people as you can while your there, and listen.

However, my wife and I made a last minute decision on moving day to move into main level and rent out one of the rooms to family along with renting out mother-in-law suite.At the end of the day, we will be able to cut our living expenses in half through house hacking and putting me one step closer to my long term goal of quitting my job in the corporate world and pursuing a new career I am actually excited to wake up in the morning for.

My first step is locating a good realtor to help me in this journey and like you said, create a list of potential deals.

Some things just take time to get resolved and in addition you are taking extra steps like putting some window a/c units in place.