You don't need to know everything to get started; you need a foundation to build on, and the rest will come through experience and then refining your education.You can build a basic understanding of investing in 3-6 months.

I have it narrowed down to two agents, one has more general experience in the area and are part of a large organization.  

At the very least you will want to have some general foundations set because with time you will modify processes and the learnings via experience you gain.

However, this is not really effective in the real world.

@Tru Verret Fleming What was your experience? 

Experiences will vary significantly based upon location.

Does anyone have any positive or negative experiences?

The debt is not yours, and unless a question is asked in a way that would subject every investor to having to reveal the debt of every entity he was an investor in, you should have no problem.This is based on my knowledge and experience, I am not an attorney.  

Does anyone hear have any experience with either of these companies? 

Even though we live in earthquake country, this was a new experience for us.