Obviously, I need a job and want something in RE so that I'm in the loop & can learn from to apply my skills and experience towards REI. 

I and many others have the skills and finances to do it.

I also reduced a lot of the soft expenses (office, accounting/legal).

And the problem with that is they took investments between then and there, and that to me is the difference between fraudulent behavior and risk management.ODC is not a scam, it's just a pied piper who was all luck no skill from their historical success.

I was a foster child who put myself through college on my own, and I have relied on some good friends for a place to stay as I grew up, which has motivated me to create a better life for myself.I have done a lot of research on real estate, and from my perspective, it seems as if wholesaling, which I feel my sales skills may help with, would be a good place to start to make some extra money to speed up the investing process.

I'm in a different area, but I just paid a plumber ~$200 an hour to do some work....clearly I am in the wrong profession, but I know equipment and skills are needed. 

Everyday RE investors achieve success with just basic math skills.

You also need to be able to rely on project management skills to manage the project to stay on track.

Hell, I might be even-steven if we had one, and I'd bet money @Russell Brazil and @Nathan Gesner would be there with me despite the fact they're two of the smartest dudes in here because they're not soft pedalers.

I have some web design skills (I'm an engineer, so easy to learn new programming languages) and I'm currently testing my new system to manage the tenants.