My personal preference --- and I might be biased as a lawyer --- is to work with title insurance agencies that lawyers own.

I won't give you biased info.

This is especially true if the person in the middle is biased for either side (which may or may not be the case here).

Obviously, I would be getting very biased answers. 

Look for those that Have skin in the game do not fall into the trap of working with West coast marketing agents that own nothing and only make a commission selling you some dog in the mid west  or rust belt.I wrote an e book on how to deal with TK companies and out of state investing if you e mail me I will send you a copy its free and non biased as I have nothing to sell .Anytime you get on BP and say you have 250k to invest you will be hounded... tread carefully and in my opinion only invest with those that have deep track records as @Brian Burke mentioned or those with deep experience as @Joel Owens mentioned  as for SFR's @Sharad M. has a lot of experience and you can buy direct from him not through west coast middlemen that will take a huge cut off the top.

,I am a Realtor in Las Vegas who almost exclusively deals with remote investors so I probably have a biased perspective.

I am very biased to judge the quality of a company/product by the quality (look and feel) of their website.

Here's my favorite (I am a little biased...because I am featured in it - LOL)http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2014/04/10...Be engaged in the discussions.

As much as it seems I'm looking for confirmation bias, I'm not.

I would truly appreciate hearing your opinions and stories as I have no biases or preconceptions to go off of.