For us it has allowed us to experience the landlord life to find out if we have what it takes to be landlords.  

I don't have too much in my Roth, but it will allow me to buy at least one property with leverage.

If you acquire a property, from a Wholesaler, once the property is rehabbed and ready for the Retail Market, allow the Realtor that provided you the zip codes, to list the property for sale.

We work with insurance companies and help homeowners with damage to their properties by educating them about (and advocating their position all the way through) the claims process and allowing them to understand their options when their homes are damaged by storms or some other cause.  

It will also allow you to use a contract collection service, which I would recommend.  

With my current financial position, the properties need to have at least 1.2 rent/value ratio or higher, be 75% of value, and $150k or less. if the numbers work out in the near future, i would like to start using hard money lenders for the down payment and closing costs on the properties, and purchase them traditionally. i would like for these properties to also have a 1.0 or higher rent/value, and with my current credit i can get approved for around $150k-$200k, so the property would need to be below that. once i fill up my 10 allowed traditional financing properties, then i would go hard money lenders for down payment / closing costs, and private financing for the long term. by that time though my own portfolio should be able to provide down payments in leu of hard money. your comments and positive feedback / critizism about my strategy going forward is appreciated. i am a brand new real estate investor, finishing up on my first hard money/refinance acquisition now, so im just getting started and looking to grow the portfolio quickly. thank you

High estimate, maybe $4-5k rehab costs to add more value to property thus allowing for slightly higher rent. 

Those buys look to have reasonable safety margins, just in case the appraisals fall a bit short, or the allowable LTV falls to 70% instead of 75%.

Can I "partner" with a Realtor (Is this allowed?) 

I live in the far east valley which allows me to market in both Phoenix and Tucson.