I am kind of jaded towards colleges right now, I've probably listened to to much Gary V and those types of guys, but its all about the effort you put in and what learning style suits you.

Only because of my guerilla style marketing.

Please know that my purpose is meant to teach you something about real estate and is not meant as an attack on you personally. 

Are there any "for dummies" style guides to even the most basic of guides?

. :)What I’d pay close attention to is the similarity of advice, if not of style.

You can probably live a better life style on 6k of w2 because of  Benefits  (health care being the big one)  Conventional loans are going to be tough, your income is going to be scrutinized more.  

We may be acquiring a multiunit. 1960's brick built, garden style, 3 story high buildings.The units had parque wood floors up until about 4 years ago.

See I don’t know about that because The new style ones can go down below zero and still heat good .

We literally teach people (tenants) how to treat us.

we do a lot of infill building.. this only works in HIGHLY desirable areas @Wayne Brooks  as Wayne states not sure were your thinking the value play is here.now there are plenty of folks that buy cheapo lots in FLA like Lehigh acres then sell for a few grand more on contracts those are the land flipping guru's you see that's what they teach.. and there are millions upon millions of lots available for this type of activity generally in FLA  and West Texas  AZ CA and other areas that had massive land speculation booms in the turn of the century.. think Lancaster Palmdale in CA there are million plus platted lots there that get traded around at tax sales every year.to find land with value to builders you need infill in established areas.. close to down towns.. in areas that are regentrifying .. lots that have shadow plats beneath them. or you can split using a lot confirmation technique ( common in Portland)  you need to work areas of Scarcity ..