I would strongly recommend having a real estate-focused accountant look at your situation and prepare your taxes for you, as you are now treading into complicated waters where you can get yourself into trouble if your not careful!  

Perform a comprehensive market analysis in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, taking into account the demand for rentals, property values, market trends, and attractive neighborhoods.4.

It is a job for tax software and accountants.

If you're seeing more price points that are higher than the norm typically it means that either the market is shifting gradually up or that there's multiple people involved in that deal "chain" before it gets to you and everyone is adding their markup.My advice would be to attend a few local meetups to brush shoulders with other investors to pick their brain about whats working in your market AND to start marketing direct to sellers instead of trying to get the deals from wholesalers. 

Ask them when they issue distributions (anything before the 15th of the month is a red flag), do they require reserves, how is maintenance charged, do you see copies of outside contractor bills, do they upcharge materials (PM's have LAR accounts with Lowes and often get 20% off), do they keep all late fees or just the management fee, what other fees do they charge (renewals, inspections, etc), where are tenant security deposits held, how are evictions handled and are you consulted before filing, what screenings do they run, what qualifications do they require from tenants, ask for a couple other owners to visit with for a reference. 

I agree that a paid monitored website for private transaction would be a boon to those involved.

This deal turned out to be a little more than everyone involved was prepared for but in the end the buyer got a great price on the 18 units.  

I don't think talking and making them accountable will help in any way at this stage.

Offer to pay the neighbors a reasonable amount say $50 - $100/mo. as they're doing you a GRAND favor helping you and besides that extra money may aide with commuting costs to work or a boost to their monthly budget or a their savings account!

Depends on how much involvement you want.