I have an abundance of time on my hands, and confidence in my ability to find some financial success thru real estate investing. 

I play them while getting on with other tasks like driving etc.

Sometimes I see them online or just when I'm driving around.

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.  

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.

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.