Unless the work you do is highly skilled and in high demand, a layoff could ruin any worker and his/her family. 

Combining your skills and Bigger Pockets you should be successful. 

There are so many skill sets that you have had trained into you, that prepare you for this business, or any business.  

I know this will come slowly, and I want to learn it right, to build skills in each area in a very professional manner.

Do you have cash that they can borrow or a long list of applicable skills?

I have a property in Rohnert park right next to the Graton Casino I bought in mid 90s for 27k  4 acres tax's 200 a year just sits there.. just put it on the market for 3 million will take two though  :)  its all perspective.. and where you live I made more on my bay area properties in appreciation than I could have possibly hoped to make in a life time leveraging small dollar rentals or drip income at 200 a month per door.. but to be fair I am not an investor I am a business owner and we create income with commission s Points  interest delta building new homes etc etc.. average investor cant do that .. they don't have the skill sets or experience to get the financing to pull this stuff off.So I totally get the buy a rental house try to scale it for the average W 2 or high income earner who is focused on their career.  

This guy guaranteed his crew of 2-3 of semi-skilled laborers around 20 bucks an hour, meaning he needed something like $1600 a week from me just to pay his crew.

We ended up renting to a couple of guys, recent immigrants with poor English skills that we had to communicate with via a translator.

A few skills I want to get down first is how to price properties effectively.

I am now looking for a career change to utilize my skills in the Real Estate world with creativity, leadership, attention to detail and an optimistic mind set.