what’s the actual first step you need to take to go from a person who want to wholesale, to actually getting your first deal under contract

Learn.

Learn everything you can, and then network with local investors.

Then you simply need to find deals!

David is definitely correct. Read books, go to YouTube, talk with experienced investors, get a mentor if you can. From there some people say the first step is build a buyers list, some say find a deal, and some say do both at the same time. I went the route of building my buyers list first. I built a solid buyers list pretty fast and was able to leverage my buyers list to partner with other wholesalers that needed a buyer for their deals. Last week a wholesaling team contacted me about a property they had and asked me to market it for them to find a buyer. I found them a buyer in less than an hour. We close next week & I'll be receiving a nice little portion of the profit from less than an hours worth of work.

Yes, learn. Listen to all of BP podcasts, watch youtube - Flipman, Chris Goff, Wholesaling Inc, Max Maxwell, search for books on Wholesaling. Everything you need is online, you just have to be diligent to learn everything that you can. Best of luck!

@Rebecca Knox I will send you a PM. Thanks!