I have selectively invested in apartment communities in Cincinnati with good value add and cash flow. 

As an agent, this has also been a great way to pick up clients :) BiggerPockets has a section just for this, Under the BUILD YOUR TEAM tab- then select- MEET UPhttps://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521Best of luck to you!

My initial impression is it wouldn’t be a great market to invest in.

I'm a fan.After selecting a strong market according to your priorities, it's all about the property managers.

While the support sounds nice, I can buy quite a bit of consultation and legal help for $60K, and that doesn't even figure the royalty.Nothing against the franchises, I spoke with PMI and was impressed with their business model, I just don't like the idea of paying fees to be restricted operationally. 

I was under the impression from working with a local LLC that uses private money loans from individuals to fund rehabbing projects who was recommended that nothing special was necessary, and the attorney who ran this through is fairly experienced, and though he said there are "a lot of moving parts" in this deal, he didn't red flag anything.So Curt (rehabber) owns a house outright.

Its likely that buyers will be more selective when choosing an agent because they now have to pay, and in the long run they will use someone more adequate, which can in turn help you.  

How would you guys go about selecting a mentor?

Hey Rob, pretty impressive analysis.

Oooh I was so impressed!