She wrote down all the interactions in her CRM.

In more astute owner/property manager interactions, the contractor will be TOLD to decrease their price ASAP or the contractor would be terminated for any future consideration.I would most definitely contact the contractor to get the low down as to why it is more, since the property manager won't do it.It sounds like since you are doing a la carte service as opposed to full service, you are getting some bad answers from the property manager. 

I'm Asperger's, which means I was born without the "bones in my head" which help us relate to and interact with others.

There are many facets and I would recommend to absorb all elements of investing and not just what pertains to your specific goals.

@Donald Crockett Since getting frustrated myself with city-data, I adopted this area analysis interactive map that works for mestatisticalatlas.comLet me know if this helps, happy hunting!

easy answer - secure a pre approval first ( especially if you have "out of the ordinary" elements to your sacenario

We interact with our CPA throughout the year not just at tax time.

Everyone brings a different element to the table.

They should not be provided a means to pay you directly, not by cash, not by check, not by any means.Just watch the inflow and outflow but let as much of it happen without interaction as possible. 

Based on the info you provided it’s hard to make any assessment on that critical element.