Initially when I began educating myself, I wanted to begin with a duplex (easier to begin with for self property managing) but now I want to make the first deal a great one so I can get out of the rat race as fast as I can. 

Since we don't know where it is it is impossible to comment you don't even have a single picture to allow for an educated guess.

Find a realtor and get your boots on the ground after you have studied all the information available on here regarding Finances, investing and real estate in general.This is high risk regardless how you approach it so be well educated before you begin and all your questions will be answered.

I can't really speak into the actual legalities and logistics of it all just b/c I am not well versed in it...however, I did learn a lot about how it functions just by reading up on the lawsuit files that are posted publicly online.  

At the meetup there was a speaker who was talking about his success to financial independent and when he went through his list of rentals he bought over the years it left me with a lot of questions. 1: Most of his rentals he bought in B+ to A area's in the 300-450k range in Florida.2: His numbers just didnt make sense, one deal he posted it showed literally like a +$5/month cashflow only....So afterwards i started to talk to him more and he mentioned that he is not the type that invest in cashflow, he is a equity investor... intrigued me so i asked more questions and basically he went on to explain to me that he buys properties that need a little bit of work, but have built in equity in the deal, but he has 4 main rules he goes by... 1: If the Roof is greater than 10 years, he always puts a reduction in his offer for a replacement roof.2: If the A/C is older than 5 years, he always puts a reduction in his offer for a replacement a/c.3: If the house is older than 30yrs old, he always puts 10-15k reduction in his offer for a water line replacement.4: He refuses to buy houses with pools....Anyways after a bit of talking he explained to me that he buys larger 300-450k houses, because most investors are educated to not buy them, so there is a lot of room to wiggle on the deals due to lack of competition on offers and most people in that price range are easily able to be purchased with a few % out of the deal to skip agent commisions..Example he gave me, he recently bought a 455k deal for 405k, but the ARV 535k, because he talked them down in needing a new roof, and a/c and offered to pay cash instead of going through an agent if he would drop 4% off the price for that... 

You will find your next steps in that education.

Hey Jaxson,I attend a local meet up once a month in Spring Hill where we arrange speakers to educate our group and exchange local trends and deals.

Hello everyone I'm a new Investor and I've been listening to bigger Pockets podcasts to get educated.

I owe this all to the BP community for providing me a forum to educate myself and network with other like minded individuals. 

I don't make any money by doing so, but would be glad to educate you so you can stop with the false claims.