I've started calling around, but would love any recommendations to help narrow down the process.

With that, I have 10 phone numbers to assign to different campaigns I am running, which is going to help me narrow down what works better in my market.

No doubt someone else will have some other suggestions but narrow your focus by defining your goals, finding a region that lines up with your strategy and begin evaluating markets in those areas.

Once you have an understanding of what the landscape looks like and what path looks the most interesting to you in the long run, then narrow your focus and go all in.

You can adjust and start to narrow down those that will work for you.

Once those two things are accomplished then you can further target and narrow where you would like to purchase.

As far as what to look for, I think it helps to narrow down your criteria first.

You also do not want to have multiple lenders/brokers pulling your credit you want to narrow it down to (2) options.There is also "No haggling" with a true bank or credit union fees are set based on fair lending standards.

We've got a handful of candidates narrowed down by affordability, knowledge by association and places that just resonate/excite with us. 

It isn't easy to find contractors but you can start by getting a list of city licensed contractors and then narrowing your search from there.