I learned not to turn the water on without your contractor or plumber on hand!!

I self mange with a heavy dose of skilled plumbers and maintenance people. 

Why, I also thought of doing is, partner with real estate agents, say about 3 good ones, who won't drop the ball, remember, you have to have a good reputation and you are still tied to the deal, so make sure to pre-screen the agents your feeding the leads to, and I recommend 2 or 3, because ideally you will be sending loads of deals and sometime you can forget who you send them to etc...And also, I recommend you hit the agents that you are sending leads to and follow up to make sure they are doing what they are supposed to.Hit me up, we can bounce ideas of each other.

If this agent has a good reputation, good contacts, has done a good job for you in the past, you plan to use them in the future and especially if they work with other investors who are competitors, I would think it would be a good idea to be upfront and honest with them and explain the situation.You could offer to give them the listing on the back end, or when you have the conversation with them you could say "I appreciate your efforts so I wanted to do something for you, it's not much, but hopefully it's enough to let you know I care and value your time, I really hope we can find another deal in the future together soon" and give them $500 in cash or a gift card or something... 

In fact, you might be better off with just a website, instead of allowing poor customer service reps destroy your reputation, and brand.The latest technology has been helping to blur the lines between offline and online.

So hopefully our tenant pool will be slightly better than other parts of Longview that get a bad reputation.

Reputable turn key companies stand by their product and will offer some kind of warranty.

That said, Advanta does have a good reputation and track record - just an angle to look into that someone new to the concept would not even think to consider.As an IRA provider, they would be OK for relatively static investments that do not involve a lot of transactions. 

This is a practice by some less than reputable companies.

Your best bet for buying with some equity is either through a reputable wholesaler or good negotiating via the MLS.