I didn't know how to respond and was torn between going for the highest paying W2 possible for easier financing of deals, and between going with some real estate related career (mortgage lender, RE agent, working for property management company, etc).

(Unlike those great projects like the Big Dig in Boston, which had permits out the ears, and was inspected a million times, and still turned out to be crap work.)I think of Georgia as a relatively free state, but then I think that about Arizona, too and found out recently that you need a license there to be a painter.

I’m not sure about market specific things BUT I know wholesaling IS marketing and human relations.

These are relatively low cost but can be high risk and cash only purchases. 

and to understand how they fit together in your toolbox, as none will give you everything (e.g, insurance is required and it will cover you for many situations, but not always; asset protection (LLC) is litigation insurance and complements regular insurance, by minimizing the target and making it unappealing).If you are a new investor, probably you will not have a lot of assets and/or equity to worry about (but even that is relative and subjective to each person tolerance to risk) so I would not worry about that till you pass that risk threshold (in my opinion 100K+ in equity, maybe 50K if you are really risk adverse) and you should be primarily concerned with finding good deals and growing your business first.

Nice people by that age, too, and very reliable. 

I saw that podcast but kinda overlooked it because I wasn’t sure it would relate to me.

I do my online investigative work to find out about the sellers, taxes, portfolio, age, social media, courts, etc.

I knew a college age guy 30 years ago who did this, before it was 'house hacking'.

Today I run a $55M portfolio.Case & Point It can be done at that age.