Word of mouth referrals will lead you to the most qualified candidates, typically. 

It helps with providing a boatload of knowledge, and support for you as a new agent, and you get the established namesake to get you traction and leads.

My guess is the wholesaler sold you as a lead to a realtor out of spite when his lowball didn't net him a contract. 

Adam Tafel (my team lead) works with many out-of-state investors. 

At that time it was a buyer's market and it was impossible to sell the place FSBO at a non-short-sale price and realtors were actually turning me away because my place didn't have the curb appeal that they thought they would need to attract the few buyers there were in the market (opposite conditions to today where every realtor is thirsty after a seller lead!) 

Commision only, but what did they offer/ lead you to believe you'd be making off the bat?

This will lead you to the best title companies.

If the lead bails and doesn't go to closing, that's a risk the agent is expected to take (and will color their eagerness to buy anymore leads from you, so for repeat business you will want to make sure it's likely the lead will go to closing).From agent-to-agent it's a referral and the referring agent usually gets an easy 25% of commission for making a phone call. 

This situation leads me to think how positive  it is to analyze small cities or suburban areas to invest in FUTURE whit reasonable prices, THE QUESTION IS: In big cities like Miami or similar one ; we investors  have to invest large sums of money to obtain a low return while  in suburban areas or small cities we have to invest a little to obtain good returns.

If you aren’t in a premium area, I’ve learned to lead with the worst aspects of the apartment (undersell) thereby weeding out the dreamers and surprising the applicants that survive the - less than flattering marketing - (over-delivering) with more than they expected visually.