Are they active on social media?

Grass roots marketing/networking/free social media 2.

Understand the concept of a motivated seller, and apply this insight to your interactions and content.When you do this, you won’t have to worry about finding cash buyers—they’ll find you.

What scared in the article is the mentions of personal financial risks, LLCs not really protecting your personal assets, the amount of investors filing bankruptcy , social threats, scams, etc.Is this article over blowing these facts, trying to sell REIT ?

Prisco, EVBERYONE knows this as its ALL OVER my " life " in social media . --- Are you legally allowed to provide the service your entire business is built around?

It seems to be the lowest cost way to source leads for now, but once I get through my first deal or two, I plan on using an actual service to handle direct mail campaigns and social media campaigns.

You can find it on Facebook "Birmingham Investor Social".

.: I'm not aware of any requirement for this.I do provide an application because it has a lot of information necessary for tracking the individual: social security number, driver license number, previous addresses, etc.When you take over an existing renter, I recommend you figure out how to get the entire file from the former manager/landlord.

Are there any social media pages they are associated with? 

So, real estate agents may do it part-time, but rarely do they do it well.Recommend 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.