I then took on the painstaking task of refinancing 7 properties (about 3 years ago) and attached mortgages to ALL properties based on forever/sell.  

For value add, its a choose your own adventure to see what improvements you can make at what cost and compare them to the current value to see if paying a premium over asking makes sense with the returns you want.

Regardless of this, you must "manage the servicer" of the note as well as complete all business administration tasks as Chris noted above.  

I have tried reaching out to utility management companies but have not had success as it seems most of them are either area specific or only except large portfolios.Does anyone have a good solution to the time consuming task of managing their utilities when they purchase, sell or rent their properties out?

Do you have any advice on different strategies about putting a deal like this together or could you recommend any good books/articles to read before I jump into this adventure? 

with no more than 6 experienced Real Estate Investors.What I would like to discuss is, of course, YOUR experience and adventure in the REI world, feedback, tips, tricks, advice, and of course network!

Without cooperation from the neighbor, this will not likely be a quick/easy task.

Because both have intersecting tasks.  

It seems like it would be a daunting task to find and contact every individual commercial brokerage.

In my professional life, I have always been the guy tasked with making processes more efficient, and was regularly moved into new jobs to help make that area of the business more optimized.