I have a friend at work who invests and is well established in that market and has been doing well.

You'll have no problem using an FHA loan for example in a rural area, but might have trouble in a red hot area like NE Minneapolis since sellers don't want to deal with the headache of inspections, regulations, etc when they can get asking price in 2d from a conventional buyer.

I havent gotten that deal pipeline established every on here is talking about.I'm definitely going to try to find a reputable contractor to turn to for rehab estimates because that seems to be my weak link at the moment.

Established property managers don’t have to deal with bad areas unless they want to for some reason.

If you are not following Dodd frank and other regulations on the lending side that’s another issue.Love to get @Jay Hinrichs take on this

I'm just a 24 year old kid with no company backing me,so I really have no idea how to establish an initial professional relationship with real estate agents,contractors, etc and be taken seriously.

I'm sure that is not your intension, but the antitrust law doesn't care about your intension.A few of the things I want to see minimum is good communication, consistent process, good understanding of the rules and regulations, and experience.

It also made it much easier to establish a team because we could get recommendations from people we trusted.

That's only $400 for 20 hours of work.Once you've established a working relationship and proven yourself, they'll probably bring you deals!

Also, are there services/utilities to the lot, or do they need to be established?