Biggerpockets.com
It's a forum full of real estate professionals and investors. There's so many different angles to this game.
Me personally, I buy multifamily houses and rent them. I also go to sheriff sales and try to look for forclosures as well. It largely depends on how much access to capital you have whether that's your savings, a loan/mortgage or investors.
If you're looking for immediate cashflow,real estate isn't the business for you.
Real estate is about building a portfolio of properties that appreciate in value while providing an income after investing a sizable amount of $$
I occasionally do flips but you have to be able to "carry the nut" until you find a buyer.
My advice would be to buy a duplex and rent 1 of the units while living in the other. You get the experience and headaches of being a landlord while living cheaply cause your rental income will largely take care of the mortgage.
That's how I got started. I bought a triplex,lived in 1, rented the other 2. The 2 units took care of the mortgage and most of the property tax. I started paying double payments after I got a raise at work and paid the mortgage off early. I refinanced and pulled out $100k and bought a foreclosure and rented that out as well and I've been building that as a side business ever since.
It takes a lot of $$ to get started but it's easy once you get rolling
Thats the path I want to take. BUT the big issue im having is figuring out the numbers and what would seem like a good investment as far as monthly/ yearly cash flow. Im looking at a property which after I ran the numbers its roughly $3000 cash flow a year after all expenses etc is paid, would that be considered a good rental property?