Learning to manage rentals

[Justin Larpenteur]

So I've been telling everyone I know and meet that I'm a real estate investor and I hear from everyone that they "know a guy" that does it and it's almost ridiculous! However, I'm a person that likes to go out and meet these people and it feels really awkward talking to people and asking if they can get me in touch with their friend who is successful in that area. Any tips for hunting these guys down and getting to the point where I can either buy them a beer or have dinner with them? Also, I want to learn a lot about managing properties because I don't have any experience with it. I would gladly work/learn for free but is that proposal too broad? How have some of you guys negotiated learning from the greats?