I’m not planning on buying anything else right away but want to take a year or two to thoroughly educate myself on how the market works, how to finance safely, how to find and recognize good deals and anything else that would help me make good choices when I get some money to invest.

I obviously didn't recognize the hidden gem that is BiggerPockets at that time because I didn't come back until late last year when I committed to making my first real estate investment.

It’s an easy thing to do on the mls and then just start analyzing as many deals as possible so you recognize a good deal right away.  

The thing you must recognize is that major issues like this present opportunities as it scares the beginners and even some pros away.

All the things I want to know seem to be things based on experience i.e. recognizing good contractors and being able to look at a property and size it up.

The manager said she though the name was familiar and when she met him she immediately recognized him (confirming her suspicion that remembering the name was a bad sign) .

Once you do a few and get comfortable recognizing potential issues no.

If you can get the numbers into a "tel:" link format Skype can also recognize it for click-to-call.

After a while you will start to see the pattern and recognize good deals

Having said that, I should also know enough about the market i'm investing in, that i'd be able to recognize that the numbers justify a further look.