You will probably find some people here with experience in or around where you wind up.

Pick a place where lots of people want to rent, the houses are cheap, and there's a chance for growth.

If you want to find people who will try to help you lose your money, telling them how much money you have and where you will be is a good way to start.You are limiting yourself way too much by focusing on LA, but with $2 million to burn you could likely find some good cash flow if you are paying cash, but you don't sound like the management type just from this.

I was hoping to see what other people have found success doing who are in the same situation, as from what I'm reading, there can be few different ways to handle it.

Hi everyone, I've been doing some research on people finding/reverse phone number websites and it seems that White Pages has the best reviews.

These are all public record and you can find the builder who will lead you to the developer if they are different people.

Staffing key people already there, front desk person, accounting person, all the third party vendors you need, all the training you need for your agents.All you do is recruit and sell. 

A lot of people recommend a separate LLC for each property and some suggest a trust or s corp that owns the different LLCs.

Most people resonate with that and I eventually get the listing.  80% of the leads turn into listing eventually. 

Lots to consider here but most important is finding the right team of people to help with this.