Hard money: This technique is requires some skill if you are purchasing a rental property.

I do have a tool belt full of skills though.

I am just biting the bullet and going it alone until I find a group with skills, money, time and DRIVE.

I understand not wanting to Wholesale but the biggest take away and valuable skill I believe in wholesaling is being able to market and come up with ways to find great deals.

I think the other great lesson is to consider the terms of the purchase and sale every bit as much as the price, and in fact you can back up to the price and terms that can meet your goals as well as create a win for the other party to make the deal happen ... so long as you know what you want, are able to figure out what they want, and have the skills & creativity to engineer the transaction accordingly.

Learn some skills you'll need for owning houses, like plumbing, electrical, tiling. 

A lot of features that usually would be considered upgrades in custom kitchens come standard with IKEA cabinets (soft close doors, base pull out drawers, ect).

If you don't have MLS access and know how to comp properties this is a skill really worth learning and there are lots of youtube video that can help with this.The value of wholesalers is your ability to buy at a discount and that can be a huge asset building your portfolio if you add to it the knowlede of comping properties and estimating your rehab accurately.  

I'm a long-time numbers guy and borderline-obsessive researcher, both of which are skills that I think will form a nice foundation for RE investing.

The skill of analyzing local comps will come with time, I wouldn't worry about that too much until you start getting calls back.