They lack the basic skills required for success in business.

I am hard working and have great people skills.  

@John CheaIf you are completely green to evaluating and purchasing real estate, I would definitely find someone with knowledge and experience whom you trust to assist/coach you with evaluating and potentially negotiating this deal.This person could be another, experienced investor, a contractor, a real estate agent, or a combination of different folks providing those skill sets.An experienced investor will be able to assist you in analysing the numbers and determining if the property really is a deal worth pursuing  - separate the facts from the vendors rosy words and claims to sell the property.If you bring in a contractor to walk the property, you should plan to remunerate them for their time (unless you have a long standing relationship and they know there will be work for them).   

Your ability to evaluate a deal correctly cuts their time in half in going out and finding a deal themselves so you have to basically think like an investor who will be buying the property from you .Of course your focus should be to build your buyers list but remember your list will get very short quickly if deal evaluation skill aren't up to par so practice deal evaluations constantly with properties on the mls to hone your skills good luck 

Am I better off trying to hone some wholesaling skills in order to establish myself? 

, I'm running into a shortage of data.

I'm more than willing to trade my time/skills to help a Mentor with their day to day activities/projects/business needs in exchange for hands on knowledge.

Unfortunately for those people the Universe will provide the next challenge until the do learn the lesson, whatever it is.I hope you find the true value of the lesson and if you do you will not have lost a cent in value, it will have just changed form from cash to whatever the lesson means to you.Good luck in your endeavours in sorting this deal out and I am sure the people here at BP will help wherever possible with knowledge, skill and support.

I had never heard of that before and thought it was an interesting "outside the box" concept.I also did sort of a fundraiser/contest once where I offered my web development skills (a free website) as a prize for entry.  

Using the Fortunato Formula, "Use what you have to get what you need to get what you want" I'd look at the following:Find a partner with money and the skills (or sub-contractors) to complete the rehab.