For me a big factor influencing my decision on who does my contract work is how well they communicate.

I've seen people come and go over the last 15 years.From speaking with you at The Influencer and the Ram, sounds like you were also looking at tax liens.

I want to spend my time purchasing and renting properties, not pampering or influencing HOA board members.As Steven Covey noted, work inside your circle of control or influence.

Are there other factors that influence these decisions?

As an agent, working your sphere of influence is going to be critical.

Your 'sphere of influence' or whatever needs to know you are looking to help a seller unload their home burden.  

Way too many variables  to let the tax assessor influence my opinion of value.  

To me, these anecdotes are more than just isolated tales of misery and woe - they illustrate patterns of behavior, influence, persuasion, rationalization and more across all of the REI market, and that's just fully fascinating.

A good 3rd party service should be referring so much business that they have a big influence over the TK provider, not to mention vetting them before they even start doing business.  

Memo 2012-243, you will see that simply holding property greater than 12 months is not a great enough influence on overall intent to retain "investment" status and receive the favorable capital gains treatment.