I would start studying the market that you plan to live or invest in.

At first, the actions they should be taking are studying and networking as much as possible.  

I discovered this past year that Cort Furniture Rental has clearance centers.  

@Dev HornThanks for that opinion, Dev.The critical skillsSetting the appointmentIf it is a pretty house, good location, just keep it simple, not alot of questions.The 5 Steps of the walkthrough - 1 Building Rapport, 2 The Upfront Agreement (to avoid let me think it over)3 Discovering Motivation - Talking about how they feel about agents, property managers, urgency etc4 The 3 R's - How to get the lowest Cash Price5 The "Magical What If Step"Lot's of reluctant language, appeal to higher authority, NLP, pretty advanced stuff.You make the money negotiating with the seller.

We discovered a leak in the roof that will significantly increase rehab cost, making my HM Loan monthly payment too high to proceed.

The second unseen problem I discovered was the home was wired with solid aluminum which was allowed during the Vietnam war when copper was hard to come by.  

This is a rather silly question but (full disclosure) I am a college student studying Real Estate and information from this site has helped provide context for my studies.

I have also been to the DFW club a few times...discovered that a couple of years ago...they seem like a great bunch of people!

well you've all ready discovered one huge asset : BIGGERPOCKETS   make sure you are listening to the podcasts as well (iTunes Free bigger pockets).

You need to study the HUD.gov website as far as FHA underwriting.