New REALTOR - need help setting up service partner contacts

[Miles Stanley]

As stated, I'm a newly licensed REALTOR in San Antonio.  My primary motivation for getting my license was for my own investing purposes (sourcing leads, comps, showings, etc).  If i work with clients at all, it'll be in the future.

So i need to get to a point where i can quickly make my own offers.  For this, it seems i need to get a title company and a lender lined up.  I've worked with lenders before, but I'm a little stumped on how to select a title company.  What questions do i need to be asking them?  is this a formal process or do i just tell them "hey i want to use your company, what info do i put on the contract?"

Thanks

[Linda Hastings]

@Miles Stanley One thing to be careful about with smaller towns is the economic drivers and employers and how that affects the need for rental properties. For example, a lot of the smaller towns down near the Eagle Ford Shale have a much higher demand for rentals when the oil business is doing well, but then those people go away when the oil industry slows down. Stockdale is a bit too far from San Antonio to get the people who want to rent but who don't want to live in a big city. There will always be some amount of rentals needed for local people, teachers and such, but, in general, I think your renter pool is smaller. Right now, I haven't seen much that even meets the 1% criteria; housing prices have gone up, but rent is still $700-900 range.