What I have seen recommended on many sources is to find someone who has knowledge and experience in what you are interested in and ask them to mentor you.

If you are going to embark in this real estate investment journey, you will encounter this situation many many times again down the road.Investing in Real Estate requires that you use other people's money and those people will always request from you that you show financial discipline.If I were you, I would find an additional income source (second, third job), reduce monthly expenses to the bare minimum, ... etc.A few months down the road, you will be in much better shape.

It has answered quite a few questions I had from reading other sources.

It is interesting to see that which I consider a problem can actually be a benefit in the right situations.I think Tom Sylvestor mentioned something to that affect in podcast 45. he said he started investing right after college & being young there were people who did not take him seriously but there were many others who were rooting for him & helped him along the way specifically because he was young.Ok world, Here I come!

Debt to Income - DTI - is only use on FHA, conventional, Va and other typical residential transactions (consumer front).If you're going to a portfolio lender they look at lending from a 1.25x DSCR point of view (industry standard) which in essence is a 80% Debt to Income if you think about it.1 dollar of debt / 1.25 dollars of net operating income (NOI) = 1.25 X DSCR = 80% DTI Never the less us bankers joke about it all the time because it might be crazy from a residential loan officers point of view but in the banks eyes its not from a commercial point of view.The commercial bank views income property as a consistent sustainable source of reocurring income especially in stronger rental markets so having 1.25 dollars of net income coming in for every dollar of out going debt service payment is acceptable.The mess with this 1.25x they will sometimes make you conform even while subjecting you to underwriting at higher rates, shorter amortization periods, and other income adjustments that make it harder to obtain 1.25x.

I've been listening to the podcast and wow is it an awesome source of information.

I don't think that's really taking advantage of anyone, but rather you may offer them a source of extra income that they might not be thinking about.

I want REI as a retirement tool, and possibly an extra money source to be able to do things with my family and provide better for them.

Definitely the best source for REI!!

Assuming of course that you're just wanting some source of funds (and not BoA).