Not only does it bring employees with it and hires local talent, but it also provides a stable population of consumers who need services such as restaurants, auto repair, hair-dressers, etc.

They have more talent.

Option B if your credit, income or tax returns have  a few kinks ,  is to work with a talented loan broker.  

That being said, if your talents and brainpower are better spent finding and sourcing deals, it behooves you to find someone else to manage your properties.

My partner and I created REIPro based on my years in the trenches as a real estate investor and educator, combined with his creative, can-do mind and talent for software engineering.

If you are making money by expanding to other areas, a decent salary and a piece of the profits could buy this kind of talent possibly.

You can't build long term success with rented talent.

I, too, agree with his philosophy in that it is quite easy to make money in a prosperous industry whereas it can be quite difficult to make money in a declining industry even if you have very talented people working for you.Although Buffett has not explicitly stated his investment criteria, if you examine his deals during his peak years, you will find that he liked buying companies with ROEs greater than 20% (with low leverage) and a P/E ratio of around 8 to 12.

Adjust the commissions/bonus structure to incentivize the desired performance and make it sufficiently lucrative so you can attract and retain good talent.

The things I am optimistic about in Pittsburgh is the continued impact of the universities to attract young talent and be a source of innovation.