I'm hoping to find someone with immense contacts / resources in the area and has investment experience.  

For those in the know & the ability to "peel back the onion", there are immense potential opportunities!

Philadelphia is a great city, immense with opportunity and extremely proud of its various neighborhoods, all of which have their own challenges and benefits.

There is immense value in your site and your services.

A few action steps you can take immediately:1)  EDUCATION & CONNECT: Believe me, you haven't watched enough videos and books, BUT without any CONTEXT (which only comes from real-world experience) most of the information/knowledge you're consuming is LOST on you and the seeming immensity of it all is potentially weighing you down preventing you from taking any action at all.Mistakes are inevitable.

Have I learned an immense amount of valuable experience?

Perhaps special legislation was passed because, if possible, it would alleviate FEMA's burden immensely if a large percentage of people are able to have a means of finding a new home themselves as opposed to overwhelming the limited FEMA capabilities. 

There are immense differences between successfully building and running a B-class turnkey buy-and-hold rental portfolio out of state and doing the same with a C/D-class high-cash-flow/low-appreciation low-income rental portfolio in your own area.

The reason we went with co-signing is because since we're young, I wanted her to be able to have more "history" of adult-credit like things so in the future it will benefit her immensely. 

The extra cost is worth the immense time savings, and you'll get a more quality result.MANY other lessons learned, as this was my first deal.Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?