I live in the town we graduate college from, work for one of the local universities, and have great ties into multiple student organizations.

My husband and I just filed our Articles of Organization with the state of SC for our LLC and now I can apply for the EIN.

If you are expecting to waltz in and be able to casually pick up a great deal off of loopnet or the mls in CA, you are sorely mistaken ... great deals must be found and/or created, and this takes hard work and skill.

If you still feel comfortable with those assumptions then the question becomes how comfortable do you feel that the sponsor is experienced and skilled enough to make those assumptions come true.In general you want someone who's going to be conservative with their numbers, someone who is going to under promise and over deliver.  

With my skill set I feel comfortable doing any job that isn't structural myself.

You cannot reach any level of competence or success in real estate investing without computer access and basic skills today. 

All 3 of us are relatively new to the game, but we all have great skills and between us we have enough capital to get started with an acceptable amount of risk (in case of total failure).  

Another option is to find someone with complementing skills and vision to partner up with.

@Mitchell BoatmanThe BRRRR method is a great way to build equity but it takes experience, knowledge of remodeling, skills involved in estimating accurate costs when you are looking at properties so you know your all in investment post renovation, and having a team ready that can start the renovation when you buy the property. 

What do you mean that dog training skills have nothing to do with tenants, BTW?