I wouldn't call my self amateurish as much as inexperienced. 

Hindsight is showing I'm very inexperienced when dealing with the city on projects. 

However, in 2017 there was a huge influx of new house flippers (mostly inexperienced), so getting a house at a price that would allow a really good profit was very difficult.

. :-) I'd love to meet up for coffee/tea and chat about REI.

You can invest it in real estate, stocks etc. my cup of tea is investing in mortgage notes where I know a lot of passive investors use their IRA to invest because it is mailbox money when your buying performing notes and typically they have plenty of equity and provide double digit returns

I would increase that percentage with other factors, such as if the hourly painter came from a reliable referral source.In a nutshell, an hourly painter to me sounds inexperienced and better be waaaaay cheaper than everybody else.

You also would be inexperienced to begin with and if you are not doing good volume it could take years to get to a point where you have good grasp of all the odd situations that come up.As a buyer if you are looking for off market deals fsbo you can do those deals without you license anyway.

Keep in mind though, that if someone is desperate and inexperienced at giving estimates, they will probably lowball it.

Coffee, Tea or Drinks on us! 

Think of it as putting a small amount of poison in a gallon of ice tea.