Soft surfaces are fine for good tenants but my philosophy has always been to over-protect everything if it's going to be a rental.  

I am not sure I can charge more (but maybe) but am sure there will be soft benefits like it being easier to rent...

You might want to look into a degree focused on "soft" skills like organizational behavior/management.

I'm searching for a new credit check solution, and hoping someone who has already waded through the myriad options has found the same thing I'm looking for.Cozy.co offers soft pulls, but no way to collect an application fee unless & until the applicant becomes a tenant.

., but the majority of soft costs or turnover costs are largely irrelevant because how the owner manages the property will be different than how I will, whether that is for the better or for the worse. 

For raw land development you just need to budget for a whole lot of soft costs before you get going, I actually help with the biological/environmental phases of raw land development, so I can you that it's tough to develop raw land.

Some initial thoughts would be to cut back the trees/brush to the right side (near front door) to give that area some more space and a welcoming feel, rather than walking into a black hole. 

The first one from 2011 was just to clear out some brush and garbage on a lot so it could be used for parking, NOTHING ELSE, no building, no anything, and that took 6 months for permitting.This one went very smoothly.

If you're just shopping around to get an idea of the rates then just do a soft pull (no SSN, just getting an idea of the rate based on some upfront general information).

The agencies we use to pull credit histories on applicants (TVS, RentCheck) perform "soft" inquiries.