I know there are other ways to skin a cat since my plan is to buy 1 per year. 

Principals operating a brokerage type model with very little skin in the gameIt doesn't matter a lot if you speak with someone who did diligence with little skin in the game or a bias toward doing any deal to keep their venture capitalist partners happy.  

More than one way to skin a cat.

That way all the skin in the game is mine. 

My local bank would not refi this deal without  "skin in the game".

As Bill described there are several ways to skin the cat.

So you can start your investment with very low skin in game but note there is some more what you must know in this game.

Looking for someone to consult on how to skin this cat, and ideally handle the nuts and bolts.

I am also looking forward to my first property and in order for me to put my skin in the game, I will have to take some calculated and manageable risks (similar to yours--the selling of stocks--but different) and just simply dive in once I find my gem and after feeling good about my calculations (which is another challenge).

He found only one skin from a bed bug and that seemed to be months old from before I owned the cabin in January.