@Josh WellsRecommend exploring as many sources as possible to get referrals AND cross-reference them to get as much accurate information as possible.Check out NARPM.com, BP’s Property Manager Finder (BiggerPockets: The Real Estate Investing Social Network), etc.Also, encourage you to learn from the mistakes of others - by reading posts here on BiggerPockets about owners not having their expectations met by their current Property Management Company.

You need to have a mechanism to remove tenants who are a problem, and I would strongly encourage you to consult an attorney the moment you close to get your lease terms right.

It goes deeper than that.NYC Liberal policies, including strong tenant protections, increases the risk of failure so much that the risk far outweighs the rewards.Financial ruin is just around the corner for the small Mom and Pop Property Investor that it doesn't make sense for them.The Tenants will have free Attorneys that are bent on delaying eviction cases so long that it stretches into years while Mom and Pop suffer from lack of rental income and still have to pay all the bills and do the management.Additionally, the increase in homeless living rough in the streets due to Sanctuary laws causing a lack of shelter beds, then evicting shelter residents after 30 days creating more homelessness, policies that tie up the Police's ability to arrest perpetrators, etc. only causes Mom and Pop to sell out at large discounts to larger Landlords who are capable to use Economies of Scale to eek out a profit.These larger Landlords will eventually turn a much higher profit as the pendulum will eventually swing towards the middle when the NYC Voting population eventually realizes that it's not a conspiracy of the Rich that's causing the Wealth Gap to increase.It's the same liberal laws that encourage people to become lifelong tenants, small Entrepreneurs (including Property Owners and small Mom and Pop Businesses) to be destroyed, and Rents to rise astronomically as housing becomes scarer even when the population declines by as much as 7% in the last several years. 

So I encourage, go to Africa, the Med., Indo-pacific, South America, Eastern Europe, find out 1st hand the reality of things.

It's an audacious goal, but if it leads to getting the first deal done, then I will try to encourage. 

Many reasons: to encourage/discourage certain economic behavior, to appease a certain industry lobby or some fellow lawmakers or even sometimes a private individual, to buy votes, to balance economic effects of a new law, as well as simply out of incompetence of our lawmakers.

They encourage accountability groups and that has been positively impactful as well.

That was the encouragement I needed.

Thank you for your words of encouragement!

@Brody Veilleux I'd encourage you to research the FHA (203k) loan process.