Building a proper team in a small town

[Nicholas Gallinot]

Hello all!

Very new to this whole scene....but I am a very interested and hopeful future buy and hold real estate investor in the single family home/duplex/triplex market in central and northeastern Pennsylvania.  I say hopeful future investor because the only active real estate investments I currently have are some high dividend REITs totaling under $1500.  My philosophy in any major undertaking has always been to research like crazy until I feel comfortable enough to know what I am getting into before I take the plunge.  I do realize that I am never going to know 'everything' without actually making some deals, so I do want to dive into a purchase sooner than later

Okay, sorry for all the background, but it just felt semi necessary.  My current focus is to try and identify all the aspects of a team I would need to help me with my investments.  I have read from multiple sources about the benefits of a property manager, CPA, attorney, mortgage broker, etc...and as an amateur in this field I want all the help I can get from them!  However, I am struggling to decide where to start.  I decided that since having a property manager is a must for me (due to work) if I didn't have that covered the finding any other parts of the team would be worthless, so I chose to look into finding a PM first..  I have looked pretty hard into residential property management companies near Bloomsburg, Danville, Lewisburg, Catawissa and Elysburg (all in Pennsylvania) and have come up with more questions than answers. 

What do experienced people do when they buy a SFH in an area that doesn't have any PMs (or at least any that advertise their services)? Thank in advance for any responses.

Nich Gallinot