The advantage of a CPA (which isn't required unless you're a public entity) is that a CPA will have professional liability insurance, they have more training in law, deeper understanding of taxation and tax rulings, general finance and estate matters, IMO well worth the difference as opposed to a general or non-CPA advanced accountant......unless you found someone like me, but I don't do taxes!

The first step is to decide what you want to accomplish through real estate investing.Then just dive in.It can be as simple as renting a room or adding a rental suite to your existing home.or as complicated and big as you want to get.I enjoy answering tenant relation questions, if you ever have any.

Due to the oil industry taking a nose dive industry here has slowed down greatly.

To go deeper from there, are you currently able to pay off any of your debt every month?

As for sub-diving through committee of adjustment. what your are mentioning is sell a lot, subject to committee of adjustment approval to subdivide, and then, when a buyer is found, apply with the buyer's name on the division paperwork?

I too an a newbie ramping up my education before diving in.

Start doing a deep dive into all the great information here on BP.

They tell your doctor nothing about what might be right or wrong with you - but they do hell him/her if they ought to look more closely.The example you gave above ($1700/mo on a $150k property) represents $20,400 of annual gross income on a $150k investment.To tell whether the property is a good investment, you need to dig deeper in to the actual (or estimated) expenses, which might look like the following (these numbers are made up, plug in your own):A property currently operating at an 8-cap, with potential to increase rents and/or decrease expenses, would be a strong buy in my market, barring any material defects or looming capex.Hope that helps!

I'm a licensed Realtor out of Atlanta, GA looking to dive into the world of real estate investing. 

I'm thinking about 07 now and should the market dive like it did then I'd be bummed I didn't get out while ahead and shift my focus to cash flow.