You can also find agents and lenders via the Find An Agent or Find a Lender tools.I am on the lending side of things and would be happy to hop on a call with you anytime to discuss financial strategies and help answer any questions you may have about nearly any loan product available to help you on your journey, even if they are not products my capital partners offer. 

I don't invest there (currently) but Columbia continually shows extremely strong data.

Verifying last 2 years of rental history and income extremely important to find the “best of the worst”.

Go to Etsy and search for "rental property tracker," and you will find hundreds of nice spreadsheets to track 10-20 rentals, usually for under $10.Software has extremely helpful features like online payments, marketing syndication (click a button, and your property is advertised on multiple sites), electronic document review/signing, maintenance tracking, and owner reports.

Anyone have great experiences with highly efficient, extremely effective PMs in the area?

I found one had been sold, and I was extremely surprised to find that there were none for sale at all. 

Yes, I've closed on 4, rehabbed them, and they are all rented with tenants in place :)OK, and for these deals, I assume you use your own funds to acquire and rehab.With private money, you're now substituting some individual's funds for your own.However, unlike when it was just your money, you'll need to proceed with extreme caution to make certain your lenders are well protected if/when things don't go as planned.Private lending is its own whole profession.

That being said, we have owned a fourplex in a small town in Michigan for about 10 years but had no guidance when we purchased, I have found all the information Bigger Pockets offers extremely helpful and I am grateful in advance to any advice on this thread. 

Stellar, I've been Army for a few years now and the VA loan is the best loan product available to buy a home. 

Conversion rate is extremely low when you get started BUT it will give you good practice speaking with sellers who have a ton of objections.