If they fail to allow access, they are charged a $100 trip charge fee.If their schedule doesn't allow them to be there, then I will open the home for the contractor.I try to respect the tenant's schedule, but I also expect them to respect mine and the contractor's.

It all depends on how long the work trip is.

expect to put some real time, effort, and trips in... hours and hours and days and days. 

Assume 10% waste for flooring material and tax, and I pay about $1.15/sf for carpet installed, on average.The supplier I use delivers to anywhere in the Atlanta metro area for a $75 trip charge.

Concerning owning a rental property: Have you read the discussions concerning the 2% and 50% rule to use as a guide?

Brentwood and Oakley are great suburbs that are growing fast.https://www.movoto.com/guide/san-jose-ca/san-jose-real-estat...If you do a search on Zillow, look at the school rankings no matter what city you're looking at and a Google map search (may not always be current).

Drive through Washburn on my trips when I go there.

A good agent will be a guide and a resource for you.

FYI, over the years, we've also learned to save a lot of money wasted on excessive management labor costs (we call them "stupid trips") by planning the occasional weekend to drive down, inspect our units and address any labor-cost intensive items that we can do over a 3-day weekend. 

Start by reading the Ultimate Real Estate Investing Guide: https://www.biggerpockets.com/guides/ultimate-real-estate-investing-guide/introduction2.