Alternatively, if you are looking for more immediate cash flow, Van Alstyne and several of the other smaller towns up that direction have excellent ISD's, and that drives desirability around here.  

It will take you, say ,1 hour to do your first offer, search etc. and once you have the template, next time you need to put an offer in, it will take you mins ;pGo to any training your broker have you do to polish your realtor side.For me it's all about collective learning.

When I'm on a tight budget (Always) I find a higher success rate from "Driving for Dollars" where I literally drive around a target area and pick out homes that look neglected or in need of some attention.  

After doing much research online, I found this property driving around the areas I was interested in. 

Drive the neighborhood in which you want know.

There are so many new things that we can teach a new hire in a training burn so they can see it before there first real fire.

My preference is to buy and hold, and receiving an income via rent, apparently.I think the first step would be just driving and getting to know the area better.Any other suggestions are welcome and appreciated.

Personally I charge $500.00 for a renovation bid as an investor pre-purchase tool which frankly is cheap considering the typical bid requires 3 hours or more of drive time and on site project inspections then another 2-3 hours of typing out a comprehensive bid that considers all desirable finishes.

Pennfed did a 12 yr variable loan for me, no closing costs and a drive by appraisal. 

I am not a banker but they are doing so many of these loans they crunch numbers, use software and maybe have someone do a drive by.If there is good equity in the property based on your remaining mortgage and if they have any doubts they may restrict your LTV but I don't think all HELOC's come with a detailed inspection of the property.