Seems that basement water/moisture issues are extremely prevalent.

They are not that prevalent, at least not yet, especially not in markets that still lean toward sellers, which seems to be the case in New Orleans.

Two ideas would be to:Call broker you are working with and ask for 2-3 PM company recommendations that would align well with the type of property you are buyingGo on Loopnet and find the most prevalent broker for the area, call them to establish a relationship (great for deal flow as well), and then before you hang up ask for 2-3 PM company recommendations based on the size and type of property you have under contract.Check to see if any of those companies overlap and those can be your first ones to call and interviewYou can always take things a step further and also ask for local insurance agent recommendations and then call the 2-3 insurance agents that are recommended to get a quote on your new property and for 2-3 Property manager recommendations.The end goal would have been for you to ask at least 4 people to recommend a property manager. 

At this point I'm still making preparations before finding my first deal but I like the idea of helping people out of those situations and it seems like a prevalent enough market in my area.

@Robert Antinoro East Cleveland is going to present investors with some unique challenges that aren't as prevalent as in the higher priced neighborhoods.

But...it takes serious effort to nudge them to "unlearn" some of the falacies that are prevalent on these boards. 

Ideally, we would find a small multifamily that is built after 1990 to reduce the maintenance/upkeep (especially as OOS investors/property managers), and I'm wondering if there are areas of the US where new construction small multifamily are more prevalent and/or if there are construction companies that focus on small multifamily that I could research?

Small multifamily’s in Portland aren’t as prevalent as much of the midwest but they still exist, I actually just sold one a few weeks ago.

Regarding the starting bid - yes it is becoming more prevalent (in CA anyway) for beneficiaries to establish lower minimum bids based on the property value.

At the end of the day, something that continues to be prevalent as I dig further into the real estate space as time goes on, success seems like it boils down to just genuinely connecting with people on a personal level, hearing and listening to what is troubling them, and just solving problems in a way that is as mutual as possible.… that just happens to utilize buildings as the outlet.