I gradutated from the University of Texas with a BS in Aerospace Engineering and now i work in the Oil and Gas Industry as a consultant.

The smart phone/cloud solutions are especially interesting. 

While I'm new to BiggerPockets, I'm an old soul in the Real Estate Investments Industry.  

As a marketing professional, I've worked in many different industries with start-ups and well established companies.

(This will help you SAVE to get into the game)Inform them why you want such a position and what you know about the industry.

There are deals to be found - I've had some success with courthouse step foreclosures, but generally they make sense for flipping, not buy and hold (after rehab costs), since rents just aren't high enough to satisfy any of the "rules of thumb", be it 1, 2 50%, etc.One of the challenges in NorCal is that too much of the money is derived from few industries, so there is a lot of sensitivity to fluctuations in those areas with resultant impacts to the RE markets.

Especially as VCU continues to expand and we're seeing more industrial and office jobs flood in yearly.

I am by no means an expert, but I have 20k sqft (lite industrial) in the Bay Area.

I flipped a property several years ago when I was working in the mortgage industry, and also had a Handyman business for several years.

Made a video about it recently outlining the importance of self-defense for our industry: http://youtu.be/aaSKgD2ekWM Thanks for watching!