You will get there but dont let other people trying to sell these service stop or over complicate RE investing for you.

During screening of tenants, the applicants start claiming they have several service dogs.

How do you look up homes that become vacant here in Norfolk the city of Norfolk department of public health - Bureau of environmental health will put a notice of violation on your door if your home is unfit to live in or not kept up with so shouldn’t there be public records on this info?

As Ryan points out, all the information is publicly available (almost always on-line these days) in one form or another.

First off, Thank you for your service, My daughter is in the military also, she makes me proud. 

Just go in to any small, community banks in your area that service their own loans and don't sell them on the secondary market. 

What service have you found to be most cost effective?

Im seeing very little in the way of cash flow properties but wanted to seewhat you all though about my inputs.Im making a few assumptions mainly looking at multifamily up to 4 units with 10% down (I know this is low but I've found banks that'll do that in my market for properties under 500k) then I account for maintenance/debt servicing from past experience (wondering if people have a better way that would take into account property age and condition for maintenance estimates), finally I set vacancy at 1 month a year (not sure if that is reasonable either). 

If the company is on social media I would ask them about it publicly.

Having umbrella insurance or having an LLC for your property management services is a great business model to protect yourself.