Learn effective property management and improve your skills in investing is the main goal with a first purchase. 

Dunning-Kruger effect - happens when a person's lack of knowledge and skills in a certain area cause them to overestimate their own competence.

I know a few contractors who are more skilled and higher paid than I ever was who won't even call people back if they ask for a cost breakdown because they have plenty of work and think that person will be difficult to work with.

Thats for a basic laborer , get someone with skill and its more . 

However this may conflict w/ the Skill Bridge program that I am doing in the last 6 months of my contract which stipulates that I will be separating afterwards.Note: Skill Bridge is a technical program that helps to transition service members into the civilian employment world by providing trainings for skills such as my program for Software Engineering.

This includes money, time, and skill.

Use skills you already have so they don't have to look over your shoulder at all. without a doubt your first step should be a brainstorm session on your Why and goals.

It seems like the biggest emphasis for a real estate investor tax-wise comes down to the federal tax level (which would mean that a CPA wise in the federal tax laws would be apt, regardless of location) yet applying the tax data skillfully to state laws is a secondary and still important factor.  

@Nhi Nguyen I believe that the laws about deaths in properties vary from state to state (and I'm not familiar with these laws).From an investment standpoint, if the death in the property demonstrably lowers the property's value, then yes--I'd either offer less, or just avoid the property entirely.From a personal comfort standpoint, people obviously have widely varying reactions to deaths in properties...some people would be completely unwilling to buy or live in a house where a death occurred, and other people don't care.Personally, I've lived in old houses all my life, and I presume that people have died in those houses (it's almost a statistical certainty for a 120+ year old home)--and it doesn't bother me at all.  

You want to work with an investment team that already has the skills and a proven track record of finding, qualifying, renovating, and managing properties.