Once you narrow it down, start with small jobs to test their reliability and quality before giving them bigger projects.Building a solid network takes time, but having dependable people on call is a lifesaver for your rentals.

The mailers I receive for my properties are not of a high enough quality, to make me believe the sender understands what gets a recipient to even open or read the mailer, let alone respond. 

Class A properties are going to cost you more, have lower cash flow, yet be more attractive to a higher quality tenant base.

Are their listings detailed with good-quality photos?

Some of the materials we choose and asked him to pick up (such as flooring) he replaced with low quality materials, I assume to keep more of our money for himself. 

@Ming HuangRecommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

My guess solely looking at your numbers is that it's an older/distressed property which means you have to account for more costs in capex. 2nd thought being it's not in the best of neighborhood then you'd have to take into consideration lower quality tenants/ neighbors and maybe increase expected vacancy and late payments.

Are their listings detailed with good-quality photos?

The license doesn't cost more, the service and quality does.And a note on that cost, in my experience hiring contractors, only a small percentage of the cost savings was due to finding the right guy who is willing to work for less.

They can't assess all the subjective data like overall layout, view from the living room window, the dogs next door that bark all day, the width of doorways, size of individual rooms, quality of kitchen cabinets and appliances, etc.The best thing to do is study your market regularly.