Here are our pt Loma unit about 1 mile from the beach for a comparison to see how it compares to your potential purchase.   

Then I compared fees and found its too expensive.

We recommend you get management contracts from several PMCs and compare the services they cover and, more importantly, what they each DO NOT cover.

Would love to give you some insights on what to look for in a rental property for best ROI and expected rental rate comparable.

I would watch out for caveats with the strategy, and double check it of course, but I think this is just a "pull out excel" type of solution and compare the ways to go about it. 

You can analyze a brand new property and compare that to an existing property, a fixer-upper, or whatever. 

how does the price compare against other rentals on the market in the area?

The city offers relatively affordable property prices compared to many other major markets, which can be great for getting good value and generating positive cash flow.

It will be a really low offer compared to what he is looking for.Another option is to price it the way the seller is telling you, with contingencies giving you the chance to back out if the house is not the way it was told to you.

Understand the fees involved and calculate the total cost for an entire year of management so you can compare the different managers.