Read, read and read some more about real estate investing. That way you'll not only educate yourself but you'll also gain the confidence you'll need to jump in one day.
Also, I suggest that you consider your time and priorities, such as are you willing to do the renos/clean ups yourself and will you do the management/maintenance yourself or would you prefer to have it managed professionally at a cost of about 10%/month? Personally, my regular job fills most of my time, so I have a great realtor who also operates a management company that handle all my units. It's not the cheapest way to do it, but if you do your analyses including those costs you can still manage to produce positive cash flow.
Additionally, if you know excel or have another number crunching program go through the analysis for each property that interests you. I use a spreadsheet to analyze every unit before deciding to make an offer on it or not. Personally, I like a good monthly positive cash flow and equity right up front. The positive cash flow will mostly depend on your PITI vs rents and the beginning equity can be attained by buying under the appraised value. That's not always possible, but it's something to shoot for...
Currently, the mkt is trying to go back up and there are fewer and fewer deals out there, but if you search hard and have located a good realtor you just may find a short sale that fits the bill. If it doesn't make sense on your spreadsheet analysis then stay away...
Good luck and don't get discouraged cuz it took me years of analyses to finally find something that worked. I started looking in 2006 and bought my first unit in 2010. While others were short selling I was buying. It's kinda a contrary popular views, but I say buy when others sell and then don't sell when others are buying instead just sit back and watch your equity rise with the mkt!
