So I don't know if it makes much sense to buy a rental property for about 200k-250k, just to make a few extra thousand a year (based on a 5% return).

What makes you stand out vs the thousands of others that " want in" and never do a darn thing.  

Some of those groups have tens of thousands of members. 

Is it urgent I have to replace that retention wall which may cost thousands of dollars or can wait until that retention wall collapses completely?

So for a good deal flow you need to market, your farm needs to be several thousand units large.Frankly, it's a lot easier to become an agent.To that regard I’ve seen a real estate agent spend half of what it would have taken to built a profitable wholesaling business and become THE dominate agent in our city of 135,000 people.  

Rick, That was literally my first thought as well. 

Certainly you can do it on your own, but time is money and the longer it takes you to learn it by 'just doing it' will cost you lots of time and perhaps thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars in mistakes.

In my opinion is unethical, and if this was a big enough company that is doing this to thousands of consumers then your class action suggestion might play a role (note I am not an attorney), but since we are talking peanuts compared to the amount in class action law suits you are out of luck.

I am not looking to do thousands of properties.

As someone who is a former dedicated diy person and who once swore that everything can be found for free on bigger pockets or by reading books I am literally forever changed.