For those that are fascinated with studying topics like this like I am here is a good read:10 Secrets of the Capitalist Class, or the "1 Percent"Josh Kennon has a lot of great material on this in general.  

Been interested in real estate for quite some time, reading this, studying that...

The million elderly people cited by the study, who've possibly lived their entire life in one community, are just supposed to pack up everything and move to some cheaper city?

To avoid getting taken advantage of for your lack of knowledge - Study and learn the business.

@Sean OReilly Welcome.You should be able to study Real Estate for a while, jump in part time and do well. 

I too was in this position last year, and have dedicated a good chunk of the last year to studying this and analyzing my decisions with my first purchase.

However, being new to the area, I'm not sure how stable this is or what it started out as.It would be an interesting study to see what each State is going through at the end of 2015 to get a glimpse and hopefully forecast 2016.

It really put me at a disadvantage but I knew I was getting a good deal and I studied it enough to feel 100% confident in the property and my offer.

Study it.

A person of fair intelligence can pass most state salesperson exams by studying for 3 weeks.