I stumbled upon Bigger Pockets 2 months ago through a Financial Literacy blog that I follow and have been an avid listener to the podcasts, which led to peaking my interest in RE investing.

I would caution anyone that is going to do this to stop and really evaluate the type of investor you want to be.

You need to look through the Wind Shield in order to anticipate if the road ahead is clear or if there are obstacles that you need to avoid.Once you understand how to Drive your Business (or Investment), you start to do calculations based on the future, such as 10 year projections with Annualized Rental Increases, Expenses Increases, Rates of Return, Discounted Cash Flows, Internal Rates of Returns, etc.The people who think you can't calculate the future somehow missed the education which clearly has financial formulas that are designed for that.I am hoping the readers of this post really try to think about why there are formulas like FUTURE VALUE (FV)....... is that just something in someone's imagination?!

It is helping you weed out bad tenants.If they are not financially responsible enough to save that tiny amount of money they are just a breeze in the wind away from not being able to pay the rent.

If you go this route you'll need some pros on your team - a Qualified Intermediary for 1031s, a tax man, and fiduciary financial planner to help with the ins and outs of the trust.

I ran the numbers on a condo I own and I realize it is underperforming financially compared to a home I recently bought.

Anyone who works for a financial institution can be a certified mortgage professional, which means they never got training in mortgages, and don't even know when they are breaking laws. 

However because of my age, and financial situation every agent I have met with or contacted ignores me, never responds or fades off and just forgets about me because I can't afford to buy a 300k house.

This will have a copy of the financials, rules and regs, and CC&Rs.  

Ideally they should be able to provide you with either trailing 12 months or trailing 24 months worth of financials so that you can see that the cap rate is reasonable/ accurate and that they have a consistent tenant base.