Jim Ingersoll, the speaker, was an engineer before turning full entrepreneur.  

Funny how all us tech / engineering nerds end up in real estate. :) 

We got an engineer to sign off on the foundation after we fixed the issues.

My background is in Engineering and Business but I have extensive experience designing and building houses.

In my opinion you need more of a creative real estate education on Power Prospecting - Contract Engineering - Negotiating - Creative Financing - Making offers - dealing with off market properties - Hybrid offers - Public Auctions and creating credit lines and cash partnerships - to mention a few disciplines .Baltimore is a small town - but there are a ton of deals that can be found when you go under-ground to dig them up -I would be glad to give you some referrals if still think you need an agent to represent you.

Sure, if you hire others who have the licenses/certifications that you need in whatever area you are in.You'll probably need a licensed architect and/or engineer for the plans, a licensed GC to pull the permits, licensed plumbers/electricians/HVAC contractors to do the mechanical work, licensed testing companies to do the various energy efficiency tests, etc.Hire people who have the appropriate licenses, and you should be good...

I invest while holding a full time job as an engineer.

My day job is working as an Engineer for a national general contractor.  

You can imagine a space shuttle engineer saying "ignite all rockets" and then one rocket doesn't go off -- uh oh.

Did RE part time, made money, retired in 2003 because I was making much more in passive RE than active engineering (a little more to it than that but you get the idea).You should make it to all the local REIAs and then hit topics you're interested in when they're presented, especially ours, we're doing a lot of Buddy System work.