Next, and again my current experience is in a different industry but one that's a highly dependent on Google reviews and ratings, I've found that there's always a break-even point where "paying someone off" doesn't provide enough of a return on the payoff. 

However, while I was still getting contractor bids for different projects, I found 3 different companies that are quick (based off of their contracts and guarantees) and have good quality of work (based off of previous and current investor feedback) but come at the cost of price.

Talk to @Grant Shipman about a possible different way of marketing them to the subgroup who gets it.

No different than if the mortgage amount was more than anticipatedThe assumption here is your purchase price was going to pay off the mortgage and the other liens - If not you don’t cancel closing you let them cancel it because they cannot bring funds to closing

Differ the maintenance on the property to stop the cashflow bleed and hope for appreciation to save the day.

But my point is, each market and submarket will have differing needs.  

Understand the fees involved and calculate the total cost for an entire year of management so you can compare the different managers.

Read every book you can on different niches of investing, at least one per month.

Your knowledge in construction, design, and different strategies will be a big help to the community.

It's 40+ minutes from either one to JC and people who stay out at the lake are a different group than would stay in JC for events there.