I'd suggest building relationships with 2-3 PMs in your market and have them on standby so you aren't scrambling last minute if/when things start getting overwhelming

The money saved would allow me to better fund the rehab.Would appreciate opinions on forgoing a buyers real estate agent to represent me since I live there, know the market, and already have a relationship with the seller, have access to the property, etc. 

Next, I'd like to find a long-term lease and create mutually beneficial landlord-tenant relationships with owners, that also wouldn't mind me renting their properties as STR's.

What's y'alls method for interviewing and making relationships with the various contractors?

An agent that I had no relationship with drove to my house to "help" me.

Yeah most are going to overbid, in part because they are not lacking work at the moment, it is a long term relationship game, lower rate quality vendors generally rely on volume, so find a way to provide that either through direct work or referrals.

It can take weeks or months to nurture a relationship with them and get them to want to sell.

Lead generation service is different because an agent pays lead generators without any direct coupling of the payment to closing (but with an understanding that if the leads are nonsense it'll put an early end to the relationship).It's this situation that gave rise to wholesaling, because ultimately a wholesaler is doing that same deal-finding service, but they get around the licensing requirement by buying the property for themselves with an assignment clause, and then resell it to an investor at a premium that ends up like a fee but officially is counted as equity gains on a real estate transaction in their own name.

The reason that this math works out is because there is a relationship to the “25 x rule,” which is called “The 4% Rule.”

Although we likely find better deals than OOS investors with our relationships, you can still purchase solid deals on the MLS that produce 10% cash on cash and in areas that are gentrifying and growing.