Also I'd set up keywords for "flipping" "flip" "saint louis" and anything else applicable so that you can stay on top of on-going discussions in your area.

Prices were roughly a million dollars  for a 2 Family home in this neighborhood at the time (Much higher by now) and there was no way my landlords 20K will be enough for a down payment so was looking to buy with someone as a partner I would live in half and he would live in half.I ended up finding a 3 Family for 930K But at the last minute was outbid by a cash buyer :( (The guy that went in to contract ended up calling me that he does not want the property and wants me to buy it but told him to late)Search continues I ended up finding a deal on zillow for 750K Called the broker a million times could not get through finally i got through he told me he already had 50 calls on the house that day and he is stressed out ....... and he can only show it to me next week, I saw that with out being aggressive i would accomplish nothing so i asked him if he can be my buyers agent and he will get double commission. this opened all doors for me and he gave me a showing for the following day.So we went to look at it with my wife it needed allot of work but for 750K it was a bargain, I told the broker on the spot i will take it, but he tells me he will need to wait a week till everyone sees it, I wanted to avoid a bidding war so I told him i would offer him 800K if they except my offer now Long story short a neighbor bid up till 815K so i told the broker that are deal was for 800K and i pay you a fee, but If I am taking it now there is no way I can pay you an extra fee, he understood me and told me to put his fee torwards the house and he does not need a fee from me  I ended up getting a contract for 825K I ran around to every person that I know borrowed like crazy and came up with 200K and after 3-4 Months we closed in September 2015 with out a partner.

I ran some comps.

So if I need to replace a furnace for $5000 might not be able to deduct that from my "taxable profits" in the given year, but I CAN both add it to the "basis" in the property (what depreciation is figured on) and ALSO get the ongoing yearly deprecation credit of $7000 for that year.If I am lucky and have no "CapEx" expenses year, I STILL get to take the $7000 depreciation for that year that comes right off of your taxable income on the property.

It is safe to say that BP is solely responsible for my ongoing hunger to get into Investing!

I ran across a youtube video and the guy did a deal with a foreclosure he got from a foreclosure website.They wanted a 5,000 dollar deposit.

Just keep on going.  

As an ongoing process the investor(s) can help educate you on how to get better at bird-dogging. 

Before I bought my first property I ran the numbers on EVERY single deal on the MLS that was in the areas that I was interested for 6 months. 

You might want to try to negotiate the closing date up front with your application if you can.The second challenge I ran into is the bank told me not to apply for any new credit while they conduct their underwriting or it would mess up their numbers.