I recently got my Real Estate License and joined the association primarily to learn the market and find deals for myself.

After starting investigations into two separate properties (the first two I looked at in fact)...

Well you definitely sound like you will have a good skill set to get started.

I think it requires certain level communication skills and rationale (which I dont have).My tenants now are self-employed gardener, and the other is a Doctorate student.

You may consider fine tuning your skills or finding the right people to work with (contractor, mentor, agent, lender, etc) before moving forward on a deal I stopped referring contractors years ago for a number of reasons. 

Have some patience, you will most likely be talking to engineers with minimal English skills, so keep that in mind.

I know it is difficult to explain over a forum how the mood of the conversation was but I feel I could have locked in the deal if my negotiating skills were better.

That means both of your deals are using the same leverage, the real difference is time and skills.

I would also be curious to see if they are finding the availability of skilled labor challenging, and if so, any strategies to address it.

I think this will be good to develop presentation skills.

I don't quite have the skill set or the time to do that though.