Review Anchor Loans, they have closed many investors I've worked with.

This could add some credibility to your reviews and recommendations.

You can also search Google and read reviews.

Thinking you can identify scammers by speaking to them or reading reviews is naïve.

The best way to connect and learn is to be in rooms where it's going down.In terms of captial your best bet is to focus on a primary income that cash flow sufficiently, saving as much as you can and doing something real estate related so you can get familiar with the industry.

The key is to offer something different to the other homes, and be an attentive host, to get good reviews to boost OTA (Airbnb/vrbo) rankings. 

I bet both Columbus and Cincinnati made the list. 

Check out passive pockets and see what reviews are there.

Got a negative review for not having a garage to use in the winter….

It's a fairly unregulated space (charging grandma $750 to puts around for 3 hours, after moving the old box from the horizontal sensor, which was the only problem with the garage door to begin with), so some combination of carefully reading reviews (you have to actually read them to make sure it's not 200 fake reviews), and maybe not giving them the full contract all at once, is in order.