As a client, I need to trust a service that I don't have much knowledge about.

Why wouldn't you do that knowledge seeking prior?

That is a norm in rest of world outside USA, a level of education and knowledge far FAR beyond where USA stands today.

Then you can rotate to your second choice on the list.

What is a "luxury" for us is I am in real estate and my wife is in finance - so we both have experience and knowledge in each side of things, so it gives us some confidence when we reallocate that atleast one of us "knows what they are doing" - if that makes sense. 

if something is just sitting on the MLS looking too good to be true... then it's too good to be true.these properties are going to have higher costs overall, be in more challenging neighborhoods, have very gnarly deferred maintenance and capex, potentially have liens, be high turnover, and require expert, highly knowledgeable, localized support to be successful. see for example this thread.https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/48/topics/1137397-balti...and even at those price points, i think cash flow is fairly low to non-existent if rehabbed to a high grade, especially with DSCR debt. 

I'm currently soaking up all of the knowledge I can and I'd love to make connections! 

Its all about knowledge. 

Self-management is a good thing, as long as you have the skill set and knowledge to do it properly.

Real estate requires a certain set of knowledge, skills, and abilities.