It seems reasonable to me for someone to start under the wings of an investor and trade time for developing some skills to build on. 

Or, perhaps you could start a consulting company with whatever skills you have expertise in.

Would love to showcase my skills. 

They have proven they have very poor money management skills.

A fire extinguisher is under 20 bucks, I might bring that as an offering to the table, but I wouldn't let them paint - painting cabinets requires some skill and patience - what if they do it very badly you may end up spending a lot of time reversing the job, or buying new hardware....worst case new cabinets. or they've spilled paint on the floors too...

I have explored all these options and still dont know where id want to start, when it comes to modifying homes, I dont got many, or any skills infact that can help me with that, when it comes to renters, I have heard many stories of them not wanting to pay, and the landlord going through a hardtime to get them out or get their money, or even both, and lastly with buying homes in developing areas, and this sort of covers all 3 of the topics I covered, all I hear these days is how bad the market is and how we may go into a recession, the reason this rumour worries me is because I know my parents were affected by the last one in the late 1980s n early 1990s, and I dont want to suffer the same fate.

I guess you can got to another one... no shortage of foreclosure auctions.

I envy the skills and systems you have in place, as I'm not good with systems or managing lots of data (working on that).

Alternately, if you’re really skilled at finding properties, many flippers will want to team with you full-time as a partnership.

-Get a thorough inspection -Keep to a strict budget-Do most the work yourself (I went through a four year Carpenter Apprenticeship program but you may already posses the skills if you've been helping your Dad for a while)Good luck to you.There's nothing like cashing that first big fat check after a successful flip!