Good Morning Everyone, 

I am a new real estate investor that is ready to dive in. I am limited on funds but if needed I would be able to obtain a loan. So far I have driven around searching for vacant properties that could possibly be deals, sent out some hand written notes, and received two phone calls from obviously unmotivated sellers. One in fact should have been a motivated seller and I think I messed it up leaving too much time in between contact. Any ideas or advice on how I can REALLY get started? How can I make this process easier since I do have a full time 0700-1600? 

I feel your pain. 
I work from 7am to 6pm 5 days a week then 7am to 3pm on Saturdays.
It's hard to get started with limited funds and another mouth to feed on the way. But anything is possible! It helps alot when you know how to talk to people, my fulltime job I am a salesman/mechanic. So i'm not shy about talking to people and making deals! 
 
Just get out there and do your best! 

Thanks Jacob. Did you feel it was necessary to get an LLC, business name and all of the mechanics first?

Forget the LLC and other shiny objects. I would suggest that your first step is educating yourself through literature and the forum. Afterwards, start networking and attending RE meetings to give you a better grasp.

By REALLY learning RE, what a RE agent must know, the text books are about $35.00 and you can read them and understand what RE is and how things are structured, after that you can read what you think is an RE education of tactics, marketing, strategies, ways to pull off deals as none of that is really RE. Over half the questions asked here wouldn't be if folks actually learned RE. After you know what you're really working with and investing in, you can read all the guru stuff you want to. :)

Assuming that one can find deals, my concerns are really more around what checklist I need to keep track of as I move from deal analysis in a spreasheet to final closing.

For example, I don't have a RE team such as a bank, lawyer, accountant, property mgr, handy-man, etc.

How much of my team should I have lined up in advance of making any offers, versus acquiring them over time as/when needed?

Hey Craig, if you knew more of the basics of RE the flow of transactions would be more apparent and you'd know what activities could be processed simultaneously and the priority of functions, so you could see who does what when.

Each deal is different. :)

Would you advise buying REO and foreclosures as a new investor?

Tiffany 

About what you have done so far. Driving for dollars(D4D) is something you should just be doing automatically all the time, it is not something you just do a few hours a week so keep that up. Next just start a 3x5 index card tickler file and put the callers and non-callers in there and fallow up in whatever time you desire. For example unmotivated callers 90 days, just call and say you were thinking of them today (after you have done a drive by) and wondered if you have you decided to do something with the property or have you decided just to leave it alone for awhile longer? If still a no, then maybe a call in 90 more days saying you drove by the property today(true) and say I have to hand it to you, you have me stumped I can't figure out for the life of me why you want to leave that property vacant instead of at least renting it out, have you considered renting it out? May be a lease-option or master lease deal.

Many times that owner will finally gain some normalcy and decide to do something, could be 6 months, could be years. 

We got started through turning personal properties into rentals. This allowed us to get in with low money down and cheaper interest rates. We also both work full time. So we have focused on our careers while living frugally. So now we buy pure rentals at 25% down (since we have more than 4 mortgages)

Thanks everyone. And @Elizabeth I used to live in Lemoore! I'm going to keep D4D but also want to incorporate some other avenues to get the phone ringing. 

Save up cash and plenty of it.  Down payments, rehabbing, and other expenses are easier to cover if you can "pay" for it instead of borrowing.  You'll sleep better at night with your decisions that way. 

1. Continue to D4D and send out personal notes.

2. Hold off on the LLC and get moving!

3. Live frugally and save up for a down payment.

4. Cash is Queen!!