I found a company that seems to have a good rate, reputation, etc. but as I'm about to pull the trigger I'm catching myself second guessing.

If you know of reputable wholesalers or agents certainly I'd be open.   

On your primary residence, your best best is a HELOC from a reputable bank.

A company that is responsive, experienced with a good reputation. 

You can take the lions share and just hire a reputable local management company to oversee everything. 

Trusting a reputable person that will not screw me over is the biggest holdup.

That's because I know I won't get a bad tenant because I will screen them and get good people and I can trust a reputable property manager to screen them if I ever needed to move. 

A motivated selelr CAN have a distressed home... but that doesn't mean that a distressed home means you increase the likelyhood of dealing with a distressed seller.To start you need to a website, make it credible, know your Sh^#, build an internet presence, build a reputation by focusing on giving value to your ideal audience.

You don’t want to ruin your reputation on square one. 

Local mortgage loan officers are invested themselves in the community and their reputation is everything.