(Ignore the Zestimate or whatever these sites try to say something is worth.)Honestly, I would connect with a local investor-friendly Realtor who can set you up with daily e-mail alerts from your local MLS and let you in on any deals that he runs across.  

The same questions over and over do give the forums a "junk mail" type of feeling sometimes in my personal opinion. 

I would suggest targeting a reasonably affordable market and start doing some direct mail.

.- If you had a list of Veterans direct mail might work well. - On meetup.com, I bet there are a ton of Veteran groups that you could join and network through.

Just starting out, how much should I expect to spend on direct mail per month? 

I own an apartment in Washington, DC, and have personally managed it for years, and I recently had some extended drama in paying back part of a security deposit to a tenant that had broken their lease.They claimed that the check never arrived in the mail, so after giving plenty of time ensure that this was true, and putting a stop payment order on the check, I sent them the payment via PayPal to ensure that we had no more mail issues.

Also are you going to get this property from the MLS or send out direct mail?

My first batch was 300 mailings and my first round of budget money was 1k thats about all i remember from the first mailing though.

Should I buy lists and maybe use a direct mail service to find potential deals?

@David Lecko has an app to make all the logistics of driving for dollars and sending out mailings very easy.