I tried early on to keep in touch but quickly was burned out by the volume of people I was getting.

my main goal is to just get the roof in before weather gets bad.is there anything I can do aside from a 3k escrow holdback suggested by my agent to prevent getting burned?  

But also people are thinking of marching to the house of the lady who POSSIBLY reported the squirrel and burning their house down, so I think it's best I dont go down that route haha. 

I've known investors to get burned because they didn't do the math. 

You have an interest rate that is unlikely to be available for another century, Hold the asset and let the tenant burn down the mortgage.

In short, getting the place restored was akin to remediating damage from a natural disaster.In the trash and belongings abandoned by the tenant, he also left the OM for his healthcare real estate endeavor, nasty-grams from the IRS about his personal taxes, and collections letters from several creditors after him.I got burned here and so did my property manager.

Our tenants have been insurance burn outs ( their house burnt down insurance is paying the rent) to those building Custom homes that will take 12 to 18 months..

Quote from @Robert Burns: I'm looking seriously at expanding my REI business include buying, fixing and flipping REO properties!

I am a nice person but I do burn out on feeling like im being let down so it does sometimes take some patience (and space from your phone) so you don’t loose your cool because you do NOT want to make a bad name for yourself with the agency

If you've got a fat stack of cash to work with, you can make all-cash offers on "as-is" properties with a fast closing, no contingencies, and get properties for 75% of market value that way.