What are the best tools a new investor can have?

[Melissa Duffield]

Hello,

I am new to this site and wanting to begin my journey into real estate investing. I am currently a business owner and in order to prepare myself for that I made sure to self educate in areas from marketing, retail, customer service, etc. 

I am wondering what areas would be good to self educate before diving into real estate investing? I am thinking of doing a refresher course in Quickbooks so I can manage my accounting on my own. What about getting my realtor license to avoid all the closing costs? I want to be very hands on (minus some of the handyman jobs).

What skills do the seasoned investors have that they swear by and which did they wish they had when they first started off? Where should I focus my education for the next few months? 

Thank you!