Start with podcasts, make a list of the book recommendations you hear and start reading. if you listen to enough podcast your will notice a theme - most people who started with no other relevant experience and found success took 6-12 months to first get educated before they attempted their first deal. 

@Christina Jean-Francois the seller still needs to decide to finance you so your credit history may be considered relevant. you also have to find someone with whom you can agree on terms for a property you want to buy so alot of moving parts but still a good option.

@Thomas Coke - your experience with your rental here in Huntsville is not necessarily relevant to your new city - in other words, I would not assume that how things played out in Huntsville will be the same in your new location, given how ridiculous the market here is right now for both rentals and owner-occupied. 

This episode is chock full of relevant negotiating tactics you can use to help you acquire this deal.

You can find plenty of relevant discussions on the forums in regards to owner financing.

You should have an estoppel letter from the current owner prior to closing stating all relevant information on tenants, including security deposits, monthly rent, who pays what utilities, copies of existing leases (if any) etc.At closing, you should receive rents pro-rated to the date you close, and transfer of security deposits held by seller or manager. 

On a relevant note, do you know any good local banks I can befriend?

I started out going to Zillow, Realtor, and Trulia, clicking on each house for sale that fit my parameters, then manually inputting relevant metrics into a spreadsheet I maintain to determine whether it’s a good deal or not; this was a time-consuming task.

I'm positioning myself to purchase my first rental property and educating myself in as many relevant areas as possible.

Then every time money trades hands relevant to the property they will make more money from you.