But the people that are paying $1500/m in rent typically don’t have kids or magnet or private schools.

We pick up and roll a magnet every single day and now this lady is telling me that I owe her $165 for a car tire.

These people being compared to those who get behind and default are apples and oranges.The oragnges are probably fed up with the system, they tried and the bankers caused the problem, if they lost their job in a window factory due to the housing bubble, then they got behind I can understand them being bitter.

Apples to apples?

As others have said, get bids, make sure you're comparing apples to apples, with an outline of the scope of work being the same. :)

If you bought Apple stock in the 1983 most lost money or broke even.

If you only have a few units its easier to deal with a few "bad apples" but as you grow, your headache grows.So the moral of this story, hire a good PM.

I'm in a classic dilemma:Strong credit 740+Net worth >$2.2M (primarily in equity, so not easily liquid)Great track record in real estateSelf- Employed in same industry/field  for many years, with YoY growth in income.Almost no revolving debt (two car payments and varying credit card balance, but minor)Tax returns UNDERSTANDABLY write off as much as possible (income looks low), so QM lenders can't read between the lines.Debt/Income ratio is high (55%) when considering tax returns as the source our net income and then mortgage payments on my 4 properties (not apples to apples).Asset based qualification seems to be a rare process?  

I became known as a deal finder, and the money came like i was a magnet.  

This is the beauty of being a contractor, realtor, lawyers to get a few bad apples out of business.