@Dylan Jeluso see if you can join a team in your real estate office to gain experience.

I would sell and take your gains.

Quote from @Jay Fayz: Hello everyone,I've recently been exploring real estate as a potential career path and I'm looking for advice on the best entry-level job to gain experience and knowledge.

@Caryn Fischer  The downside of gifting or selling property to your children is that it can have capital gains tax consequences.

They get a higher return since they are covering housing cost, have the $250k per spouse primary residence deduction in gains, is a savings account, higher leverage position, lower interest rate possible, will pay more premium for location, etc.House might be overpriced for REITs but not for home owners.  

Yes, any cash you take out of a 1031 exchange that isn’t reinvested into a like-kind property is considered “boot” and is subject to capital gains tax.

With new regulations in Canada like the flipping tax and property gains tax, I want to be mindful of the risks involved. 

I haven't lived in it long enough to be exempt from capital gains, good point on that.

Use 1031 Exchanges to Defer TaxesIf you’re selling a property, a 1031 exchange allows you to defer capital gains taxes by reinvesting the proceeds into another property.

I'm quite not 100% on wether or not if I purchase my first investment property where I currently live (Virginia) (*which I will be*). should I also gain my license here since I'll have a property within Virginia.