(From what I hear the first property can be very impactful to jump starting one’s real estate journey (or very very negatively impact it,).

Also we always recommend having more than one vendor for each aspect of your company.

Maybe I was lucky that I have started investing before information became ubiquitous on the internet.The biggest fear (being cash flow negative) is not even a real threat, because it is manageable and it will fix itself over time.

Rarely if ever are the negatives brought up. 

Whats funny is 20 years ago my net worth was negative and I would eat out all the time, now I have a few bucks in my pocket and I cannot remember the last time we went out to eat that was not a special occassion. :) .  

Recent purchases are almost universally cash flow negative.  

If you have positive cash flow, and  you use your own cash to pay off the property, you are adding to your cost.If you have negative cash flow, the negative comes out of your pocket and adds to your cost.If you try to change negative CF to positive by adding to the down payment, thinking the lower mortgage payment will change the negative to positive CF, you are only paying the negative CF upfront,...and still adding to your cost of the property.Profit starts AFTER you have recovered your cost (cash) in the form you paid for it (cash flow). 

The numbers provided are cash-flow negative so that doesn't help.

I enjoy the creative and relationship aspect of being an agent.

For me if someone has a negative review I typically consider something else, if its positive then I would continue to do my own research but do not really go off of others.