Go down to Home Depot and pick up a few bundles of wooden stakes and some nails.

Go to Barnes and Nobles and pick up a book on RE investing.

i can't afford to shell out $350 or so(what they are going for on ebay) on a wholesaling course (such as Scott Rister's, Vena Jones Cox's, or Kris Kirschner's courses), i was hoping to pick one up for around $50, used is fine. if anyone has one, and would like to sell it to me, let me know... just email me at [email protected]

I'm not looking to pick a fight.

So, pick one and learn all you can about it; there will be plenty of time to expand into other areas after you get started.

My question is what are my next steps if I want to pick this up?

Although not ideal, it is OK to have negative cash flow if your INCOME (rent) exceeds your EXPENSES (interest, property tax, insurance, utilities, maintenance, etc.).

You will have utility bills, services, mail delivery, etc., to show that you live there.

You can set it up so that you need to "accept" each fax as it comes in, or you can set the fax to auto-answer and it picks up after x-many rings.

FYI, you can pick up a mold testing kit from Home Depot for about $20 and test it yourself.