In my opinion, it's the best source of money when starting out.  

@Aaron Bruenger is a great source and someone you should reach out to.

If you are counting on using the funds to complete a project it may be prudent to draw them out well before you will actually need them if you have no other source of funds.

As such, I believe my first priority is to research and understand what sort of low-money-down financing I can source for this first investment (FHA 203K has come up).

Build a portfolio of buy and hold properties to provide me with a source of passive income.

Source: www.consumer.ftc.govSo the problem you will face if you don't get a report that was generated by one of the bureaus is that your adverse action letter will not be able to comply - and thus the applicant will be unable to dispute the derogatory information that led to the adverse action.So, use a service that is intended to be used for tenant screening.

Make sure you come to CFRI and ask members who they use.Also Hope Richards is a good source for transactions and land trusts.

However, Phil's free youtube videos are actually a great source for gathering basic information about REI.  

We are both hungry and motivated and hope to eventually do this long term and make it our primary source of income.We are looking for a motivated buyer's agent in our area who focuses on investment properties who is looking for a long term client.  

The frequency of the subject property being a deal is probably lower then if you went with some paid sources but we make that up with volume of analysis.