Turnkey rentals... Too good to be true?

[Steve Prather]

I'm a newbie, so please forgive me. My wife and I purchased one rental property last year. We began looking recently to purchase another property. I stumbled across a turnkey solution. They will cover as much or as little of the process as you would like, from finding properties, to rehabbing, to property management. My question is not really whether or not it is too good to be true. My question is more about how to tell if it is too good to be true? What resources do you use to check out the company?

For example, this company says they don't have an inventory. They have a list of investors and when they find properties, they send the info to the most appropriate investors. But, to get on the list, they require a deposit to be escrowed. It seems a little strange to me, but it may be standard operating procedure to filter out people who are not that serious about the investments. These are things that I just don't know about.

Any advice would be appreciated.