Sounds like you have all the skills needed to succeed in REI.I highly recommend joining the Georgia REIA.Holler at me if you're ever looking to invest in West or South Atlanta!

I may be at the beginning of my journey, but I'm in this for the long-term, and I believe that I have the skills and the mindset to be successful.

I would like to improve my negotiation skills and cold calling abilities, in exchange for my time.

Clearly need to work on my formatting skills...

Theres never going to be a perfect moment when you feel 100% ready, there will always be something else you could learn or some skill you dont quite have.

I have IT skills (and experience)Credit:  I'll explore ways to build credit from here.

It's unfortunate that the skill needed to express an opinion with tact is so lacking.

Both options are great, I feel like you need to dive deeper and find out where your soft/hard skills will work best/profitable. 

As a new investors, I would not recommend you take those on as projects unless you already have a very strong set of transferable skills such as construction, project management, property management and/or rehab.

For the past few years since completing my masters in real estate development, I've been fine-tuning my skills as a real estate investment analyst for private equity and brokerage companies.