My specific goals: My short time goals is to place my house (was my primary  residence for two years) as a rental, and I buy a another income property this year (perhaps another SFR because I might not be able to fund the 25% down payment on a multi-family).My other specific goal to obtain $8,000 of passive income a month in 5 years, using a combination of SFR and Multi family units.

@Trina Hanks Trina, I think you need to obtain some more info on the deal. 

Me and my boyfriend are both attending a real estate course next month to obtain our real estate license.

@Chris WoodYou can actually obtain financing for 10k and up. 

I just recently obtained  my Illinois Real Estate Broker's license, and am looking forward to putting it to work.  

Get some experience under your belt, and you'll find it easier to obtain financing from private lenders and hard money lenders.

@Dmitriy FomichenkoI’ll obtain some clarification from my team and follow up with you Dmitriy.

@Amir Kabiri I was on the fence myself for a while, but after speaking with several investors and realtors, I've decided against obtaining a realtors license.  

Then on the addendum I state I am not currently represented by an agent but reserve the right to obtain one (that the listing agent will have to share their commission with) in case my offer is countered.

Regarding your recommendation of using a third party background/credit service, in our first hand research, landlords much prefer obtaining that information directly.