But, for those readers who won’t go the extra mile to do a deeper search on techniques, here are a few off the top of my mind: Craigslist - They’re all over here, it’s like a piranha pond in my market.

Here's the deal:I recently bought a house in East Nashville with investment in mind.

If you really want it, you need to abolish the idea of giving up from your mind now.  

Since I've got my service business, I don't mind all of this productive, yet unpaid effort. 

That didn’t even cross my mind to ask that.  

This year, I would like to really focus on learning real estate as much as I can, network with real estate-minded people, hopefully find mentors, and make my first deal (Small Multi-Family with intent to House Hack as I am renting right now).

There may be some north end folks who show up, at minimum you'll be around like minded people and learn from them.https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521/topics/544769-seattle-edition-deals-drinks-and-dinner

Also, do we need to have a specific property in mind before we seek pre-approval?

I haven’t decided how I feel this will impact the market but it’s something to keep in mind.

I'm still a couple months out from being able to move from my current location so still working on identifying areas, however there seems to be (from what I've seen) pretty low inventory in what I'm looking for so basically as long as it's in Tulsa and not in a rough part of town I plan on keeping an open mind.