I don't believe either is very accurate for a real estate professional.

Seems to be the best of both worlds in terms of personal connection and professionalism.

High quality tenants vs low quality tenants and how much you value your time or how much you dislike dealing with the tenants are big factors in when you decide to hire a property manager.

but that would be a cheap shot from him and a waste of his professional time.

Can u define the scope of work or you are hiring full time? 

You may be better served doing multiple small deals and get better cap rates than competing against the real professionals with deep pockets with cash parked and ready to go.  

And the Professional Investors Guild is a great resource for learning about wholesaling and rehabbing, and of course networking. 

The most useful resource for me is looking at other professionally done houses.  

So my question is geared to the real estate professionals and I'm interested in finding out, what is the best way to find an agent that will help me find a beach rental property while being considerate of their time knowing this process could take months?

Sellers often hire a auction company, which advertises the property for sale and typically hosts maybe one open house to show off the home.