Congrats on taking action to get this first property under your belt. 

I think that if they would have lowered their list price by even $10,000 they would have had some action on it, but they didn't. 

To answer your last question, my realtor has contractor contacts I should be able to leverage for rehab budget estimates, as well as family friends with experience in the construction trades.

I just think there is a trade off that people need to consider, and their credibility shouldn't automatically be questioned if they choose privacy.

On the 2nd I hired all licensed trades but separately.

To clear it, you often have to do an expungement or a quiet title action via a lawyer which gets expensive quickly.   

Welcome to BP Tara, and congrats on taking action and joining a like minded community. 

Ben Franklin used similar advice to turn an enemy into a friend (although his was asking to borrow a book).There are some caveats here, you cannot be wasting time thus you need to demonstrate that you are taking action. 

And everything is a trade between time and money.  

Although it is possible to do everything 100% remote, most people I know who are self managing do come on site for a few days or weeks to meet and sort of interview the team they are building.You will need trusted cleaners, handymen, and also good recs for trades i.e. roof, plumbing, HVAC, etc.If you need home setup in most markets there are designers who will handle the whole set up for you, and I would want to interview them as well.