Had she availed herself of these services, the time demands for the program would have greatly diminished for her.The sole monetary issue in this is a charge for skip traces.

I know there is a point where there will be diminishing returns but every rental property I buy want it to be as if I was gonna live there, is that unrealistic?

The west coast markets have traditionally been appreciation markets, and if you are not forced to sell and can hold long term, risk diminishes.

I've seen plenty of improvement in some of Baltimore's better quality neighborhoods, but overall I'm not sure why DC's population has exploded while Baltimore's has diminished and the city has continued to deteriorate over the decades. 

There's diminishing returns at some point.

It will still diminish your pool of buyers at least some bit.

But financially putting 20% down would nearly diminish my bank account.

While I'm not opposed to self managing (did it for a long time before) at some point you're going to reach that point of diminishing returns.

If yes, I've created an exhaustive checklist in irder to 'reverse engineer' the property, debt and title.After determining that the opportunity has merit, you need an entrance (and exit) strategy.If you are trying to buy the asset (the property) then you need to find someone who has the ability to pass title to you, either owner or the person in charge of their estate, if deceased (or conservatorship, if owner has diminished capacity). 

Diminishing returns.