I suggest your first book should be a text book for agents in pursuit of a license, it will contain the non-fiction, business basics you need to know and it will be the quickest way to get up to speed so that you may apply your management skills.

I think most people in business want to be liked, in fact, sales success has always been linked to strong interpersonal skills.

Tradesman InternationalMadden Industrial Craftsman & Labor Ready all 3 large temp agencies in the Seattle area for skilled and unskilled construction workers.  

With your skill set you'll have no problem finding a mentor in your area.Ever consider Wholesaling?  

Churches, alumni, fraternal & social work agencies, or organizations typically, along with thousands of arts, education, cultural & industry specific associations make a lot of effort to donate, or subsidize housing---in particular. if your mortgage is $ 300K at 6% apr using $ 2,500 a month in the first few years nearly $ 18K will be deductible. if you're renting to some tenants certain programs will filter far more inducements to both you and the tenant. obviously there are reasons that you'd most likely want to own units that cost $ 60K and rent for $ 1,500 a month to make even more sense out of these opportunities. when i was 23 my best friend a newly mented attorney, who lived with me pursued buying a 2 family home that the City of NY's Housing Development Preservation (HPD) offered us for $ 1. it needed about $ 150K of improvements. we were supposed to borrow the $ 150K at 1% interest under a very aggressive renovation schedule that returned the property to it's fully taxed  assessed value in 90 to 120 days; or we'd have to pay 2% apr for the sums we elected to borrow from an HPD aligned lender. my income was 3 times the lawyers; and i wanted him to live in another 26 unit apartment building we were developing under an even more lucrative program that allowed us to borrow $ 500K at 1%, if we ("I") put down $ 25K. i wound up renovating the apartment building on my credit cards and we walked away from the 2 family: due to the lawyer's reluctance to move into the apartment building. i actually felt that having him in my own apartment really confused the women that visited me.

Applying the finish is an art form and so many factors can effect how it comes out. e.g the floor needs be clean of all risidual dust and must be tact ragged, to prevent "pimples" in the finish, you have to apply it quickly to smooth and level it, as it starts to cure quickly, to prevent puddles and streaking.

Some other good reads are:Performance Anxiety by Gordon MossTurning Distress Into Success by Fuquan BilalInvest in Debt by Jimmy NapierThe Art of Investing in Distressed Mortgages by Sherman Arnowitz The Banker’s Code by George AntoneThe Wealthy Code by George AntoneFour Step Guide to Private Lending Profits by Lee Carney Harder Working Money by Jay Leigeber

This is one of the basic forms of project management, once you start calling it what it is, its easy to see why those skills do not come easily.There was a moment last year when I found myself desperately pawing through the snow for a bit that jumped out of an impact driver, chanted like a dirge to myself, "This is my life...this is my life..."

There are so many variables, especially with older properties.Workers who are honest, dependable, skillful, reasonably priced and personable are worth their weight in gold.

This is a skill I would love to learn as I do not expect to use a realtor for each deal.