I think a vast majority of the time the problem is that the companies are poor business people who do not know how to run a business.The other problem is that new companies pop up daily and the simply cut and paste marketing copy.  

Quote from @Mike Levene: contractors should give exact quotes, come in give you a full detailed list of how much it will be to cost for labor and materials broken down.

@Marcus Retter welcome to BP.It's a great community.I've been investing in Albuquerque for 10 years, and you can find some good deals there.Personally, I live in Santa Fe.There are several active Meetups that you can join to get around to other investors.Networking is really important.Get out there and make connections with other investors; that is how I got started. 

That's how the banks do it.

Watch the house to see if they abandon it, which they probably will.Buy some books and educate yourself on how to be a better landlord.

See how things are going for them locally and decide from there. 

Know anything about that? 

Any advice on how to proceed cautiously in these times?

How are you paid and are those distributions underlying property performance based?   

They like that.My super duper, proprietary "Quick Calc Pro" spreadsheet tells me in minutes what price I can pay for the property, what my cash flow will be, what my entry fee is, how much I can wholesale or fix & flip it for, how much to give the seller, and a ton of other items that only someone deranged and experienced would care to know.