One thing that helped me was attending all the meet ups in my local area on meetup.com.

Wonder if there are any meet-ups for local real estate investors.

I have found a healthy amount of flexibility in my schedule to allow me to spend time with my family.

My second goal is to create an income stream that will surpass my previous employments, which will allow me to stay home with my kids and keep a flexible work schedule.

I'm passionate about RE and always looking to meet like minded people and learn different strategies!

So now we have a laundry schedule in my multi's, a designated yard guy, designated doggy doo-doo days where all poop is picked up, etc.  

Like you said though, if they place a tenant with no rental history or who's guarantor family member has an unstable rental history, or if the required qualifications and investigations are sub-par, IE the PM didn't bother to investigate rental history beyond the applicant's current residence or didn't take into account that they just started a new job in a different industry making 3x what they previously did for the past 10 years - then those are reasons to be upset.But yet again, if a landlord has to take the time to deeply examine an applicant beyond the PM saying, "yes, the applicant meets our agreed-upon criteria and here is the backup", you are working with the wrong PM because that's a big part of what a PM does.

Here are some good places to start:http://www.biggerpockets.com/meet - find and connect with other BP members that are in your area.http://www.biggerpockets.com/alerts - Set up keyword alerts to be notified of the topics that interest you.And, of course thehttp://www.biggerpockets.com/forums - ask any question about real estate!

Hoping to meet people both online and in person.

No way there is enough labor to meet the demandPrayers to the BP members that were displaced as well as the BP investors that were wiped out.