I have basically been doing the same thing as you Kevin, reading books, blogs, and forum posts, and I figured until I can build negotiating skills I would start out by Bird-Dogging my way into REI (J Lamar Ferren).

However I have looked at a few properties in the area and my Mom (5'2" middle aged woman) did home nursing care in the area taught at the skills center on Clifford Brown.

I am skilled and experienced, and have close family that I will pay under the table to utilize their incredible skills.I've got 3 college degrees, a great job thats steady that I plan to keep, I'm stubborn, and have an impeccable skill known as researching and studying.

My business would not be nearly as far along if I did not have a partner that has complimentary skills, a strong work ethic, a desire to succeed, and a great relationship.

It will get easier and it will get fun when you become skilled.

And maybe consider improving your people skills.

I have also negotiated escrow fee charges down on many, many occassions.Your negotiation skills do not end at acquisition of contracts, they go beyond that, so use them!

If any of you have any skills, try to leverage those.You may have to make some serious and very painful adjustments.

Focus on acquiring skills that have a higher value in the marketplace than working in retail does.

Though like you said, if they don't have the skill to do it themselves, they'll need to hire someone...and that gets more expensive (since you need to pay for it on each home, instead of just buying the furniture once).