Have a decent website/social media to show your work, promote yourself well and build your brand, and answer your phone/make yourself available and you should be picking up work in a short amount of time.

If your strategy is picking up rentals then maybe not.

I would love to pick your brain and connect with you a bit more if you don't mind.

My wife and I relayed to him that we were interested in picking up an investment property and it just so happened that one of his clients was looking for a partner to purchase a condominium that was in foreclosure.

All in all there is several ways to tackle this but whichever way you decide just pick it and commit.

Have the lender clarify that the appraisal has been picked up, not if it has been assigned.  

You can then compare that to the company you mentioned and pick the best fit for you.The primary item to watch for would be prohibited transactions.

Or am I going overboard with the analysis should just pick a number like $300 per month and let future experience teach me if it's a good one? 

There's a triplex there we've had our eye on and are wondering why it hasn't been picked up yet. edit: looks like it's off market now, so that might be why :)

I'm extremely motivated and love to learn and share the knowledge i have currently and the stuff ill pick up along the way.