They respond quickly to emails/calls and follow up on open items.

They will provide you with a list of items, do them.

Property management (pm) should be a line-item in the rental investing scenario, not a ways to cashflow or break-even .

We were so over budget and some of the budget went to Items that add very little value (such as new plumbing and electrical) that I suspect we barely added more value than the cost.  

Things like the asking for the same items multiple times, costs/fees that weren't originally discussed or catching the land contract a bit late in the process give me a bad experience.

As you surmise, there is no way to avoid the deemed gain on transferring it out of the Federal corporate structure, into a pass through structure.There are potential ways to to transfer out the future appreciation while leaving the bulk of the 'old' appreciation in the S-Corp, but no way to get that 'old' appreciation out of the corp without triggering a gain.Last item to reiterate - this gain is at the S-level, so it’ll give rise to S/H basis (while simultaneously reducing basis via the distribution).

Items with a strong foundation for growth that you are happy to own.

You also want to avoid throwing a bunch of money at Vanity items and furniture.

Overall mostly cosmetic items.

Such as deep clean, nonexistent items charged for and inflated prices for stocking. any chance I can get my money back?