In my experience, there are two types of investors that dress up: Sharks that dress up in expensive, slick looking clothing and generally look down upon people, or the 'Ol Gil from the Simpsons type that dusts off their suit to try and look important/successful and just blows the pitch from inexperience.

I guess it is because of my inexperience I am afraid of being scammed.

The biggest obstacles to getting started for me are 1) my job, which eats up a large portion of my time, and 2) my inexperience: the moment never feels quite right to dive into something so unfamiliar to me.

I hadn't considered this approach and I guess it shows my inexperience.

I understand about bringing value and with my extensive knowledge of investing in the financial markets, I think I could help a savvy investor and offer a lot of information, but I feel like because of my young age and inexperience I will be highly doubted and criticized.

You might get a newbie who doesn't know any better but you are getting inexperience also.

Depends on what you have gained, in experience, over the years.

Wasn't sure if my inexperience was showing by asking the wrong questions.

As Jon has pointed out, there are banks/credit unions who have CRE loan programs for loans in the 500k and below category.Your income and credit are good so that won't be an issue, but your inexperience as a landlord could be a problem for some lenders.

Tim, Karen and Joel both have good points but because of your inexperience, I think trying to charge a retainer will come off looking more like greed.