You have no way of knowing.

Welcome to BiggerPockets and best of luck investing!

If I were to take money from family and friends, how is it best to structure it?

Owners mistakenly ASSUME all PMCs offer the exact SAME SERVICES and PERFORM those services EXACTLY THE SAME WAY, so price is the only differentiator – so, they often select the first PMC they call or that calls them back!

There are obviously success stories and going deep into a theme is a sure way to stand out but it will also alienate certain prospects so I’d recommend doing research first to determine if this is the best approach. 

In my opinion, you did the best thing possible and that’s executing. 

I think I was spoiled on the MLS for getting the information for free.So the question is what is the best way to learn about the investment opportunities that are out of the MLS?

State Farm seemed to have the best rates for a company I was familiar with, there was some new online one that was lower, forget the name, but I was a bit unsure about using them.

Their cheap guy took their money and did only half the work, which was shoddy at best.

Welcome to BiggerPockets Rajesh and best of luck investing!