This is the place to be.My 2 cents would be: try to educate yourself about the topic, and get your finances optimized for a loan.

In terms of identifying value-added opportunities, is this based more on driving value through rehab or about identifying additional revenue streams / optimizing management?

But I agree that probably timing isn't optimal right now.

My initial impressions have been that there are indeed deals out there, but it's a competitive, growing market, and having listings fed from the MLS may not be the most optimal way to find a great deal.

(Obviously it's not optimal...)Is it a good plan to go to school for business management and Real Estate?

In theory, the higher debt pricing would cause there to be an optimal leverage point.

Is it optimal? 

I'm happy to contribute as well, I'm a great resource for website questions, particularly those involving Wordpress and SEO (search engine optimization).

This isn't a mandatory step and it's more of an optimization later on down the road.The best thing to do when starting out is to just analyze deals.

Everything is optimized for remote monitoring these days - I even learned about some cool phone app-operated mouse traps in another thread I posted.