And other than that, just driving around and happening to come across rundown buildings.

Make sure you factor in the higher turn over costs (bed bugs, rehab, court fees, etc), vacancy and management, whether self managed or not, it will take more time and effort than normal and require a hard nosed manager to keep it running. 

I've talked to a few people about doing rentals and most of their responses are about the same "start of with a cheaper small house, rent it out and gradually work towards getting more lots and then work bigger towards dupleces and so on" I need direction for learning tools I really am starting fresh, I don't have knowledge really at all on market what factors that are in play when going to buy a house or renting it out or anything like that.

Taking advice from Rich Carey, we are currently working to drive down the principal as much as we can to a point we can refinance and make the numbers work. 

My husband works and I stay at home so I would be the one really doing the legwork and I am currently trying to decide if that is something we should invest in.We talked to two realtor agents that we know and they did not have any good information on multifamily properties for investments and that is driving me to more want to just go figure it out for myself.

I think I'm going to go with a Keurig and offer a variety of coffee, tea, and cocoa pods rather than a cheap $20 coffee pot (that always drives me nuts when I stay places!)

Could be a factor at play.

The MLS was not helping so emailing landlords with Craigslist ads and “Driving For Dollars” was my doing.4.)

It's a personal decision based on a lot of factors. if you purchase one rent-ready or cash flowing, you do so based strictly on your whatever your personal investing goal and style is.

I search for houses by driving around and it becomes easy to spot a 'distress' house and when they are vacant, I find out if the owners are gone and living in a far-off state or are ill and just have really 'divorced' themselves from the property.