From what I analyzed while looking you really needed to be at 4 units, occasionally 3, with 10-20% down for the property to cashflow.  

Or maybe an occasional dinner meetup rather than lunch?

Occasionally I do some wholesale deals in Orange County, but focus on multi family out of state. 

My mentor is a contractor running his own business and also buys rentals and does occasional flips, so we were lucky to have existing relationships with nearly every trade already.   

I'd stay far away from them for anything other than eBay purchases and the occasional sending money to friends/family.

If you have cash reserves and can handle the occasional vacancy, and lower cashflow for 10 years, you will make more money by taking the shorter term loan. 

I suppose there could be the very occasional situation where I represent a friend or family member but otherwise it is just my own traffic.Do you have a recommendation for an investor-friendly broker that will keep the fees the lowest?

This happens to me occasionally with my direct mail.

Occasionally a deal gets listed right away - around here that typically only happens if a residential realtor catches a tiger by the tail and has neither the experience or the contacts/clients to sell the property out of pocket.I also highly recommend Ken McElroy's book ABCs of Real Estate Investing.

Using this "50% of something is better than 100% of nothing" theorey, you'll be able to sell when you need to, get ahead in the savings department, and then buy an occasional deal yourself when things are smooth and you are confident...or when the exact right deal comes along for YOU.