I AM VERY NEW AT REI AND CAN USE ALL THE HELP I CAN. I HAVE READ A FEW BOOKS AND LISTENED TO SOME AUDIO TAPES. LIKE MOST EVERYONE ELSE IAM SCARED TO DEATH TO TAKE THE FIRST STEP. I WOULD LIKE TO TRY TO FIND A MENTOR. ALSO IN STARTING A REI BUSINESS, SHOULD THE BUSINESS BE REGISTERED WITH THE COUNTY CLERK AND THE STATE FOR TAX’S ECT. CAN ANY HELP?
THANKS,
TIM ??? ???
JOHN,
FIRST, you can turn off the CAPS on the keyboard. Most people view it as annoying or that you are yelling. 
Second, best thing to do is to go to fourms such as this one and read all you can. Ask alot of questions. As you learn a bit try to find an inexpensive book at the local bookstore that talks about the type of investing you are looking for. If you can’t find one locally then turn to the more specialized books etc. that are available here on REIClub.com’s Products.
Alot of noobs ask for mentors and I do believe FREE mentors are few and far between. I also think that forums such as these are the BEST free mentoring you can get.
I love to help others understand things tha tI might know about, but I am sure that once I am going full throttle making all the money I won’t have as much FREE time to spend talking to every new guy about it tho. Such is life. I know I am still a noob, but I found a guy that is local to me that is interested in actually DOING REI and we had talked and emailed a bit and last night we closed on a cash mobile home deal together 50/50. We both would not have had enough available cash to do the deal so we split it and are working and learning together.
If you find a peer that is knowledgeable you both may be able to talk things back and forth and come up with good ideas and learn much more.
I have to agree with ARamirez, a lot of the beginning questions can get answered on this site.
I would personally recommend you go to local seminars - most are free - to network and meet other investors. Volunteer to help one of these investors on one of their projects so you can learn. There is no better way to learn than by doing.