I've been involved with the lead issue since the beginning attending and speaking out at all the city council meetings and town hall meetings.

Take advantage of the opportunity to meet/network with people like @George Kountoupis

Were in the process of obtaining a couple consultants or 'mentors' and we are currently looking to go to a REI club meeting.  

Look in the events and happenings section on BP  to find REI meetings  in your area  or you're welcome to come to Olympia for the Olympia meeting tomorrow night.

But not before doing the research to find out what you need to know and who you need to meet to do it right.

You can find fellow investors to collaborate with here, it would help a lot in getting started https://www.biggerpockets.com/meet

But the biggest barrier for an investor is that many coops and condos have an owner occupancy requirement or really strict rules about owner occupancy (like you can sublet a max of 2 out of every 5 years and other nonsense).

Check out the nearby members and network https://www.biggerpockets.com/meet, it will help you a lot to find partners that can help you out in investing.

I have even flown to other states to meet with clients.. ( of course I had talked to them on the phone. but it was big enough timber deals that I wanted a face to face and whats 1k bucks in flight car and hotel if I was going to make a few hundred grand on the deal.. its simply the cost of doing business. as this is all I do .I never did not close the deal when I made this unique effort..

I think your NAR quote is probably right as we weren't developing from 2008 to 2011, but it probably applies more to select markets where there's been less building recently (strict building codes/difficult to develop/geographically constrained) ...