Most of the people that I have done the managing for have come from word of mouth/referral.

Let's just say he spent about a good 15 plus minutes bad mouthing the property (claims were baseless) and suggesting ways that I could get the seller to decrease the price.This worries me.

My wife introduced us both in the opening, and I kept my mouth shut (rare indeed).

Right out of Transunion's own mouth (link below). 

Remember it's expensive to litigate so 99% of the baseless crap you here is just schmo's running their mouth, nothing to worry about. 

Trust me, I am 100x happier as a person doing something that I love as a Realtor and Investor, and it was all worth it.

You can also find people just by word of mouth--ask around, and find out who's involved in real estate in your area...nearly everyone has a family member who's a real estate investor, or a friend who's an agent, or a co-worker who flipped a house, etc.

And yeah I agree rent control really does leave a bitter taste in the mouth for any angelino investor but what else can one do when life gives em lemons ? 

I also attend a local real estate group and get a lot of word of mouth leads.

Then these naysayers would be forced to put their money where their mouth is.