They are usually at the meetings of CFRI, first Wednesday of every month

@Trevor Carli have you tried reaching out to anyone involved in the Brew City meet up?

Getting a referral from a fellow investor is OK, however that contractor may be good for the referee, but could be not so good for someone else.Contractors are special individuals - they too are chasing the buck and trying to get the best deal possible.You may want to write specifications  of what you want done - once you know what you want you can better compare bids from workman.I have found that meeting real people with real tools at a time they are buying supplies and materials at Home Depot 5:30 - 6 am picking up stuff to do their daily work is sometimes an effective way to find the craftsman you are looking for at a price that will serve you well.Getting referrals is OK - but how do you know that they didn't over-charge the person who is referring you to them?

One thing that helped me was attending all the meet ups in my local area on meetup.com.

Wonder if there are any meet-ups for local real estate investors.

Another aspect to consider is because you don't just need to find a few tenants, you may want to buy a healthy business vs one that has gained a bad reputation over the past number of years.In summary, I think a car wash business could meet many of the needs you are looking for, and if cashflow isn't a huge priority, you may be able to find a couple people who could do much of the day to day aspects of the business and it could become pretty passive much like a property management company can make an apartment building passive. 

I'm passionate about RE and always looking to meet like minded people and learn different strategies!

Like you said though, if they place a tenant with no rental history or who's guarantor family member has an unstable rental history, or if the required qualifications and investigations are sub-par, IE the PM didn't bother to investigate rental history beyond the applicant's current residence or didn't take into account that they just started a new job in a different industry making 3x what they previously did for the past 10 years - then those are reasons to be upset.But yet again, if a landlord has to take the time to deeply examine an applicant beyond the PM saying, "yes, the applicant meets our agreed-upon criteria and here is the backup", you are working with the wrong PM because that's a big part of what a PM does.

Here are some good places to start:http://www.biggerpockets.com/meet - find and connect with other BP members that are in your area.http://www.biggerpockets.com/alerts - Set up keyword alerts to be notified of the topics that interest you.And, of course thehttp://www.biggerpockets.com/forums - ask any question about real estate!

Hoping to meet people both online and in person.