I have several questions regarding my next steps,  if everyone will bear with me.1) I know how to search the tax records and find some info,  but are there other ways of gathering more contact info?

Honestly, the pitching kind of frightened me, and made me questions whether I wanted to pursue real estate investing.

You need basic steps to get started not a fire-hose of info. 

Another tip is to set up keyword alerts (ie Multifamily, Atlanta, etc) to reach out to people and follow up with them on there commentary if there already doing what you're interested in pursuing.

You can also pursue commercial financing, but with no experience it's going to be tough.

My personal experience too and this is for those that do not plan on owning them forever and willing them to your kids or next of kin at a stepped up basis.but for those like me that were thinking hey I will own these 7 to 10 years take the write offs then sell retail..I did all that sold retail but what I was not thinking about is that a 10 to 14 year old home even though I bought them brand new.. to sell retail   what was acceptable when I bought them  tile counter tops  black appliances etc etcnow retail buyers standard is granite stainless  new paint 3 colors floors perfect etc etc.so it was costing me 20 to 25k per home to do a retail up grade to sell them for retail prices.. along with cap ex ( which in my case was minimal) since these were only 10 to 14 years old.. but then roofs being replaced because of hail that cost deductible.. and so on and so forth.. the cost of owning and keeping these nice is just more than you can raise rents in most markets.. that's my experience I got top rents in the day but they never went up much during the 10 to 14 years of  ownership.. just like I see modest type rentals that rent for 700 to 900 those rents have stayed pretty constant for the last 20 years .. and prices to fix stuff has gone way up.. 

I would love the best steps to starting and Investment Club

Assuming the logical next step is to hire an attorney, what kind (real estate, litigation, etc)?

I regret not stepping for in college until I was 33... but I own an appraisal company now, have a broker's license and mentor realtors and entry investors.

I'm using flipping as a stepping stone to get into larger multi family rentals.