However, my work involves a lot of late nights and it’s starting to take a toll on me, especially with two young children.  

Median household income can be an indication of the area.It's not feasible to manage D-class remotely or with 3rd party management and make a profit.

You could get the 3rd party processing fee removed by working with a broker/lender that does in house processing.Seems you're being gouged for the appraisal review and admin fee...that's ridiculous. 

Understand the fees involved and calculate the total cost for an entire year of management so you can compare the different managers.

Since your parents seem open to your involvement, I would start start small. 

We are experienced and have never involved anyone in our projects and have never used a loan outside of a conventional mortgage.

If you are just looking to network I would go the route of meetups locally (you can check above at the toolbar, hoover over forums then to the right you have events and meetups.If you are looking to wholesale and build a list of buyers that fix and flip for deals you may have then I would pull lists from 3rd party sites like Property Radar or propstream.

Late to the party on this one.

In this era of increased rates, obtaining properties that will produce a good return are harder to find and often involve quite a bit of work.  

Understand the fees involved and calculate the total cost for an entire year of management so you can compare the different managers.