and i had noticed that there was availability until Sept for LA county but that is now gone. there is still availability for Sept in San Diego, if you want to drive. but i can't even make an appointment because they haven't processed my application yet, I sent it back in 06/29/20 :( here is a link where you can check Live what is available: https://secure.dre.ca.gov/PublicASP/CurrentExams.asp 

Are you looking in areas where you will have people on the ground or will you have to build a team from scratch over the Internet? 

We set an appointment for the following day.

Once you identify several properties your agent should set up appointments for you to look at the properties.

I live in a market where I can invest.What I Did: I listened to almost all BP podcasts, watched a lot of youtube, lived on BP forums, and other internet education (didn't spend a dime).

I'm mostly worried that if I requested an appointment THIS early (3-4 years early), they wouldn't take me as seriously, or they'd feel that I might be wasting their time, especially since I don't have the cash reserves in the bank to back myself up (even though I have a relatively stable job, and my credit score is excellent.)

Here's one (dashing out to an appointment):  https://www.globest.com/2020/04/29/demand-jumps-in-single-family-rental-market/

The only challenge is that they are usually very backed up, so if you make an appointment now it could be 3-9 months before they actually can come out and do the energy assessment.I haven't used any of the interest free or low interest loan programs for doing lead safe/remediation work, that I think you're asking about, but I am loosely familiar with them.Basically while I appreciated knowing about those programs, I'd already budgeted for that work in my rehabs and didn't feel like being slowed down to apply for and arrange for the loan when I didn't need a loan in the first place.

My experience with Tahoe management companies is that the newer (cheaper) internet based companies don't have the local resources to do the job. 

Later with INTERNET and records placed on line I found out that it was repoed by HUD 3 times.