Regardless, there's a shortage of skilled trades labor. 

It is better to start with small jobs first before giving them larger jobs so that you can determine their skill level, trustworthiness, and value.

It has created a unique environment where skilled laborers can charge whatever they want and work whenever they want and the work ethic here is not great.

I have considered becoming a property manager, real estate agent, or what ive been heavily considering is just doing construction and gaining the knowledge and skill to be a GC.

You have a set of skills/experience (or money) you bring to the table as an investor and you match those skills/experience/ideas with a property and you add value to create a deal. 

Majority of Americans do not have the STEM education, skills, prime age to get high paying jobs but alone with the stellar savings for downpayment. 

with 3.1 to fully develop it puts us at 8.5 plus 500k in soft costs so round that to 9 million so today we found our selves with 3,600,000 of profit on the dirt. 

Not thinking of any of the many other possible problems, condos are the first to go down in a soft market and the last to come back.

It seems reasonable to me for someone to start under the wings of an investor and trade time for developing some skills to build on. 

Anthony,As someone who has owned both apartments & notes I can tell you this:With apartments you have a "soft" return in that there are so many little costs over time, from maintenance to repairs to getting a vacant unit ready for the next tenant.