I recommend adding it to your list as a possible location to invest in.

It will help alleviate stress and help me ease into finding the right fixer upper that is worth the time and money to invest.

Learning how to invest in a house isn't that complicated.

My husband and I are new to real estate investing.

If you are located in CA and are not investing there (good idea to stay out IMHO) then you have the entire country to choose.What attracts you to Indianapolis?

If you decided to sell and purchase another investment property you would be able to do a 1031 exchange, and defer all the tax and the recapture.

When a tenant moves out, transfer the deposit back to Checking so it's ready to apply towards expenses or refund the Tenant.If you end up with excess funds in the Checking account, I recommend you transfer it to a third account designated explicitly for future investments.

@Jason GriffinRecommend exploring as many sources as possible to get referrals AND cross-reference them to get as much accurate information as possible.Check out NARPM.com, BP’s Property Manager Finder (BiggerPockets: The Real Estate Investing Social Network), etc.Also, encourage you to learn from the mistakes of others - by reading posts here on BiggerPockets about owners not having their expectations met by their current Property Management Company.

I would love to partner with someone on this deal, but in the event that I can't, is there such thing as an assignment fee for finding a great investment property and turning it over to someone? 

This was not unique to a specific lender but some made the process easier then others for sure.Anyway, I am now approaching 75% LTV (based on initial purchase price) for the last investment property with PMI so I reached out to start the process and was denied with no explanation.