Pay someone who is sucessful in your chosen field, may need to be in a different area, a lot of sucessful people are much more inclined to help people if they are not training their competitors.

The saying in this case would be "Buy a house that rents well even in tough times, appreciates well (beats inflation), is in good condition (and will probably be for a decade), the buyer accepts your contract that uses a loan as the funds (instead of giving it to a competitor who has cash), and for under market value (because they are distressed or very motivated) - choose four."

If you have a rental with window units and a competitor with central air, you are going to lose that tenant to the competition 100% of the time.

I am a local competitor and friend of their company and what I can tell you is that they are the number 1 company in the country for turnkey provider of rental property. 

I haven't had much luck finding mentors in my area, I am starting to wonder if I don't come across as future competitor or what.

@Joe Gore that's all well and good if its from the general public or competitor but if its from a state regulatory body,, then its a whole nother kettle of fish... the bureaucrats get paid to follow up on these and they get paid if they win or lose.At the end of the day... as we all know there are so many laws technically broken in the RE industry every minute of everyday that unless someone piss's someone off or there are numerous complaints people will just keep doing what they are doing.And of course from my standpoint of helping finance deals.

If your due diligence is solid (price checking V competitors, checking for reviews, etc) I don't see a problem.

Competitors come and go.

It does seem that they will have lots of funding, which will make them tough competitors against wholesalers who try to get properties under contract and then find a buyer.

That being said, I didn't use my realtor's company website- it was always behind in posting new properties compared to one of their competitor's.