I would start pitching to friends and family and then join a local RE meetup group to get to know people.

What would you do if you had to start from scratch and still work your day job?

Don't overthink it, househack if you can to start, keep educating yourself and saving money and you'll figure out how to buy the next properties afterwards. 

Hi all,I signed a lease for new tenants starting (7/18). 

You should have started eviction process IMMEDIATELY to keep pressure on the tenant to get help or move.

You can start there, but I know small town politics very well and I'm sure they "omitted" to see the deed restrictions. 

But neither nearly as bad as yours - our biggest one was a kitchen fire that smoked out the whole house.  

I'm headed out now for final inspections on the the quad and duplex and we'll start leasing up this weekend.

I'm starting out in wholesaling and I'm finding myself in this pickle of.... do I go and find a seller first or build my buyer's list first?

If these wholesaler want to get paid they need to get a license and go work for a brokerage or they need to have their own money buy their inventory Then start marketing it once they own it..