Working full time in the technology field, my approach is to favor a buy and hold multifamily strategy in the Phoenix, Tucson and Nevada areas (focusing on Phoenix initially).  

Lately, I am getting pulled by the urge to learn more about this real estate investing thing and while I have almost no money and lots of student loan debt, I want to work with and learn as much as I can about real estate investing so when my opportunity to invest comes I can jump on it with little hesitation, and some confidence in my abilities in this field.

I've been watching webinars, reading articles, and taking notes heavily and thought I'd join so I could connect with more experience professionals in this field and someone that could get me on the right track.

I've heard it is a very rewarding field to get into.

I have heard somewhere that some people use listsourse.com to find developers using certain fields to narrow it down but I have NO IDEA how that works.

But adding fields like estimated value, equity, whether or not the property is already listed for sale, etc will typically save you more money in mailing costs, then you will spend on the list.Where you can really get a jump on the competition is abstracting your own lists for things like those that @Steven Leigh mentioned - code enforcement, tax delinquencies, and other specialty lists that aren't widely available from providers.

We all study relevent fields in school and should have no problem getting jobs that will pay at least $50,000 for a starting salary.  

I am 100% a beginner right now and really do not know much about the field.

Regarding training, remember that the RE field is huge.

Get some cash flow and some experience in the field before you put down a big chunk on a single deal with a lot of potential surprises.