I've always been interested in REI, but really got serious about it about a year ago.One of my favorite quotes is "Learning leads to action; action leads to success," well, right now I am in the Learning phase.

My favorite book that taught me the most about evaluating a rental property is called ABC of real estate investing it is from the rich dad company.  

Learning by doing is my favorite, even when I make some mistakes...I've learned to get others involved 'before' I jump though.. 

What has been you favorite book for this topic?

Donnell,This is going to be long and dense... so grab your favorite beverage.Thank you, I think ;)First things first: 10K is enough to start, especially if you can be creative. 

Or would the buyer builder buy it without the building permit and gamble obtaining it at a later date once they have a variance?

My favorite card.  

Thats a big gamble to take when each container costs $7k each.

My favorite list is people that own the house, live in the house, have owned it for 20 years or more and own it free and clear - that is the house you will make the most money on when grandma or grandpa are now all alone in the house and are moving in with the kids, to the nursing home, or passes away - someone finds your postcards in 6 months or 6 years from now and give you a call to see if you still buy houses - these are the cream of the crop.With Realeflow leads you can do a lot of the above sorting and with the $7 a month version you can get 100 leads from their system - narrow those leads as much as possible before you export them to get the best leads for your money.Then, the next thing to do is to watch the list for returned letters.  

Whenever I found houses I "know" are going to be sold to investors I save them to my favorites in Zillow or Trulia...that way I can see what they sell for both before and after they are flipped.