lastly I think the sellers in these areas are far more sophisticated than inner city rust belt property owners about values..

This property needed an extreme amount of clean up and haul away of items left behind.

The challenge is knowing if the listing agent actually tells your offer to the seller or not.For example, if a distressed property is $650k and you want to offer $620k, the listing agent says the lowest the seller may accept is $645k, but is that actually true or made up because the listing agent wants their commission?

If not I wouldn't bother selling as there is an incredible amount of money lost in buying and selling properties, so you have to make sure you have a plan to maximize the equity and actually have enough. 

I am interested in buying a long-term turnkey property in a nice area (I live in San Diego so this property would have to be out of state).

Most property managers don't charge any markup.

Most traditional property managers don’t handle this setup due to challenges like managing tenant disputes, coordinating overlapping move-ins/outs, and the risk of Fair Housing violations when selecting tenants.

Socal is tough to find investment properties that work.I have a great realtor in Sacramento that can find properties that cash flow.

It sounds like you are trying to buy a second property with less of a downpayment than 20 percent.

I've been managing for 15 years and have helped a couple owners change/expand their portfolio.