I ended up finding an amateur realtor to work with, and did most of the learning and negotiating myself with the seller's agent. 

If you want to learn about real estate investing, buy the man lunchI’m often asked where the best place to get education is for new investors.Truthfully, some of the best seminars I’ve ever taken happened over lunch when I’ve taken out successful investors and had in-depth discussions.Here is how I prepare: before we go, I tell the investor I want to be respectful of his or her time; I ask how long they have for lunch?

We've been laying the groundwork for a move to a larger property via running these 22 (soon to be 23) units successfully on our own, and by participating in syndications as passive investors where we learn at the feet of investors much more experienced in large multi-family projects.  

You can learn how agents chose this career and what they needed do to become successful.

Looking forward to a successful career in real estate. 

I have a partner who is a pro contractor as well so I have the "fix" end of the business taken care of,  but now to be successful I need to learn more about other areas of town.

During the purchasing negotiations, the previous owner was required to have a new roof installed.This was good or so I thought.What I didn’t foresee was that they used a less then admirable contractor.

I haven't done that myself, but everything I have read indicated that it's successful, but only when done consistently over time.

Or maybe another approach to reaching my goal of becoming a successful real estate investor.

Feel free to give suggestions to increase my success in real estate investing.