Unless you bought RE a few years ago, created equity via successful BRRRR, flip, or do a combination you're just playing the appreciation game. 

The BRRRR method and creative financing are game-changers!

And I generally require a sponsor that has full real estate cycle experience with little to no money lost, low leverage, high skin in the game and reasonable fees and promotes.However, other investors will look at these deals as bad/too boring for them because they are more aggressive and not concerned about the risks of default, refinance, interest rates changing etc.

The current game is flipping which is a job (stop flipping and you stop making money) or more patience than I have.  

Start with Strategy by Dave Meyerhttps://a.co/d/8u2CtKyI read this book in Sept and it seriously changed the game for me.

As someone in the game for more than 30 years, there are cities I have always been interested in, but have no interest in a one-off for myself so this is a great opportunity to get exposure in a market without any of the operational pain.4.

Love that you have been in the RE game for so long!

One of the reasons I asked the question is that it seems strange to me that a property management wouldn’t take anything upfront if they inherited a house that wasn’t ready for rent .Our property management also does the cleaning ( deep clean over 4 days was $1000 but they had to deal with some nasty pet hair , fleas etc)and that included some cover up paint etc .One lesson learned here is every contract with owner : property management varied greatly it seems from what is needed .But moving forward - I feel that $500 a month on a $2100 a month property is too high once it’s rented - unless endless problems persist of course ..thanks for your insight!

From what I've seen, the average view-to-application ratio on platforms like Facebook Marketplace can vary quite a bit, but a general ballpark is around 5-10%.

But my understanding is that it's a numbers game.