That being said, I think there's also something to be said for the nature of the conference itself.

Leadership at these administrative agencies have no incentive to make it efficient for property owners since there is no competing agency to go through.

He's all over the internet and does a huge conference once a year in Nashville with Bill Faeth.

The small caucus that gathered at our inaugural annual conference shared ideas to bring the profession into the mainstream and safeguard its position in the larger finance market.Perhaps the most crucial idea to come out of that conference was the need for a new term to define their vision for the industry and its future: not “hard money” and “hard money lenders” but “private money” and “private lenders.”

The better ones have some leadership attributes... but there's so much more to this than that. 3.)

Check out some articles on crime in the area is mostly workers who commute in to others. great rental market, great submarket, but not even top 20 markets in the United States. travel to some conferences and talk to some investors about it. 

Ask for a conference call with both of them and see how that goes.

They are people I intentionally sought out for guidance and leadership.

I attended the STR Wealth Conference earlier this week, and one of the main segments was a presentation from Jeff Hampton who owns "STR Law Guys LLC" in which he presented the best ways as an STR owner for you to protect your assets.

I attended a conference that focused on this type of financing, and it was a great opportunity to meet professionals that only focus on that space.