I did hire a part-time "groundskeeper" who deals with weekly things and perhaps, once I exceed 20 units (7 units right now), that person will be a full-on property manager, so I don't have to brag every-time I have to introduce myself X-D.

As a local investor and local Realtor, we run across off-market properties often and can help determine a fair price by providing an ARV (after repair value), and introducing you to some local contractors in the area.By the way, Lawrence has a local investor meetup every 2nd Wednesday of the month and Topeka has one on the 4th Wednesdays. 

Greetings to the community,
I hope this message finds you all in good spirits. I'm new to the forum and excited to be a part of this community of knowledgeable individuals.
I come seeking guidance and advice regardi...

My goal is to help California: Homebuyers with their down payments using equity -- not debtHomeowners access their home equity -- without additional debtInvestors: Participate in home appreciation -- real estate inves...

Personally I wouldn't use Zillow, I can only imagine they want to introduce a future fee for the service.

Happy to introduce you to actual investors that have bought our properties to answer your questions.  

If you want to learn about the local market and plan on being there for some time I would join a RE team to understand the geographical nuances of the area and also introduce yourself to the community.

Doing the above probably doesn't solve this directly, but by removing and reattaching all the balusters the connections are tight and the glue joints are solid...if that's not the issue then you may need to introduce some other improvement to prevent the wobble.

I have a few specific questions and would greatly appreciate any advice or insights you can offer:Tenant Communication: What's the best way to introduce myself to the current tenants and inform them about the change in property ownership?

@Jeremy Staggers Houston has plenty :) American Title Company of Houston/Patriot Title/Capital Title ... all of them have 10+ branches  and they do all sorts of things for investors (e.g. expedite title search, loan doc prep, double close, blind HUD etc) ..PM me if when you have a contract and would be more then happy to introduce you to one of them.