This is my first post on here and excited to share my real estate investing journey with the best partner in the world, my wife.. we are looking into buying our first investment property via hard money.

@Stacey OlsonRecommend exploring as many sources as possible to get referrals AND cross-reference them to get as much accurate information as possible.Check out NARPM.com, BP’s Property Manager Finder (BiggerPockets: The Real Estate Investing Social Network), etc.Also, encourage you to learn from the mistakes of others - by reading posts here on BiggerPockets about owners not having their expectations met by their current Property Management Company.

This is also easy to say when I only have 5 properties / 7 doors. 

This seems unlikely in the long run. you are forgetting that someone is paying down your principal for you so you need to take that into consideration. 

My recommendation would be to bring on a consultant to do this for you and you manage them.

This is not my area of expertise, so wise people on this website will likely tell me not to venture into this!  

Any advice on how to navigate this?

I will look into using what you said. 

I use Sam's club and Amazon.I have a pro account with Sam's.

Hope this helps!