Staging would depend on your local market, and your budget.You can consider, as pointed out preciously, possibly staging only for MLS photos with the use of the same items. 

Lets all just keep in mind that time is the most precious resource that we all have.

My issue now is how do I get that precious little thing called data from the properties I am interested in investigating?

A piece of precious metal is tangible.

It's some n00bs who never bought anything, don't have any $, but using OPM they outbid me by a huge amount (maybe because they're not as concerned with a return given it's not their precious down payment bullets)

I wouldn't say that spending precious life time to drive around to get lucky is a strategy I use anymore, since the competition uses faster, better and cheaper tools and will pick up that gem way before you see it.

You don't have to act on them but you won't lose out on precious days if you decide to start any type of proceedings and it will establish a behavior pattern so your tenants will always know where you stand. 

And agents are so scared of losing their precious account, they wont stray outside the 'FNMA agent handbook' even a tiny bit.

They basically range from jewelry to industrial uses. 

There are fees associated with purchasing and selling precious metals and this took me over a week and a half and I actually lost $500 on this.