But first I want to get a deal or 2 under my belt at someplace local that I easily drive to.  

Thank you @George Blower.

You might try to stay outside the belt and consider some donut counties.

Definitely get outside of the belt and into donut counties.

Ideally, it would be great to partner with a seasoned investor who can help me analyze deals correctly so that I can get this first property under my belt.  

To be clear, the objective is not to trade financial instruments, but it is a level of sophistication that you rarely hear about on these forums.Or, as you mentioned, being able to raise capital commitment facilities so you can essentially go into early Fund deals all debt, often at very low rates due to credit quality of the investor (institutional funds), and therefore you can get roughly a year of operations under your belt before calling any capital or owing any pref.I align with you that there is nothing wrong with syndications, and some great syndicators out there.

Once you have a few units under your belt, it's worth exploring revenue based financing (RBF) as a way to fund renovations or even a down payment on your next rental. 

Once you get a few properties under your belt look into a bookkeeper but for the first couple I don't think it's necessary for you.Best of luck!

Once you get the first one under your belt, you will have that much more experience and knowledge to tackle the next phase of your portfolio.Looking back, I wish I would have followed this path I'm recommending more closely.

Although I currently live in Dallas, my eventual plan is to move to a Rust Belt city in order to get into the game.