There's been difficulties setting up my checking account at the local bank and rollover of my funds from Fidelity.

Glad to see you want to avoid some of the failures that many have experienced, but I’m sure your construction and RE background will put you in a pretty good position for achieving your investment goals.

You should come by the Denver BP meetup sometime - there are plenty of folks there who are also just getting started, as well as many experienced investors.

However, I can recently say I experienced this same dilemma as I was being recruited by a team myself. 

I had a few friends with properties in Minneapolis and Wisconsin who were having similar difficulties until they found a  local provider.

For you if you self manage, or difficulty finding a company interested in managing if you choose to hire someone.- property is cheap for a good reason...

Once we finally got her the phone after a few days, she claimed that no one challenges appraisals and if we wanted to be difficult - we could take our business elsewhere.Has anyone every experienced a reaction like this before?  

The space isn't very large or complicated though (basically a few boxes < 800 sq ft) so I may be able to save that expense.I realize at the end of the day it's all on me whether I want to put in tons of work to save money (and like you say, still get sub-par work done) or hire experienced professionals to make sure things get done right.

been in real estate for a long time. love BP. great info for newbies and experienced investors alike

Then experienced financial difficulty and sought out a modification around or about 2009.