A few points of explanation: (1) I'm trying to buy near where I live, so I figured mentioning the town I live in will make it clear I am local--hopefully a point in my favor, (2) I figured the point of verifying basic information is really to let the owner know I am not clueless and have done my preliminary research, and finally (3) I'm not sure all that I should verify on that initial call, as my primary goal is to walk the property and engage face to face with the owner.

There's definitely a need in the market for what you seek and I concur with your findings of typical FAs  being comp-focused solely selling or managing paper securities, so basically worthless for your goals. 

I guess my goal is two types.Looking to purchase a small cabin resort in CO for STRs. 

The best way I've found to make this decision is to compare the activities with your goals, both short- and long-term, decide which will have the biggest ROI (considering expected growth/success in comparison with time/financial investment), and commit to those activities for a set amount of time, usually 4-6 months, before re-evaluating.

Hello BP family,I recently bought my 3rd rental property in Salina, KS using a HELOC that I have on my primary residence (CA).

Just set goals and keep moving forward.  

Ultimately the latter is my goal and I would like to achieve that in the next 10 years.

My rough strategy is buy SFH (older but (semi) recently remodeled B- to A- properties in good areas likely to continue appreciating and attracting good, trouble-free tenants) 0% down VA (may consider a small amount on second property, like up to 3% just to speed things along) and stay in it as my own primary residence until at least 10% of purchase price paid off and able to cashflow 300+/ month after mortgage, taxes, insurance and 15% set aside for repairs, vacancy, and maintenance (like I said, I'm not overly interested in rental RE, so I want to be sure it's lower effort and worth my time in return).

He and I have done a ton of house-hacks for people from out of state as well as local - we've done quite the mix from SFR to MFR and various loan types, budgets, goals, etc. 

We ended up purchasing and utilized the home as our primary residence as we self-funded the improvements.