And for a property of that caliber, I highly recommend you spend the money on a professional photographer for high quality and artistic photos.  

Preparing high quality, whole foods takes a lot of time and effort and with a busy life it's easy to revert to something quick and easy (which is normally not as healthy).

Employee Management: Given the absentee nature of the business, how do you ensure quality staff performance and customer service in your absence?

That's unusual, because HD has to add their cut on top of the Contractor...Was the work high quality?

I tend to avoid looking at them unless a builder is giving a super big rate buy down AND it's not stock.You need to network to find really quality contractors, and then identify a property and buy it slightly beat up & add to it.

The cheap homes have higher turnover, lower quality more problematic tenants and more expenses.

I understand why you look at schools and crime but you need to focus more the quality of tenants and the ability to keep a property rented longer.

Nobody with quality RE wants to give up super low interest rates. 

Meaning high(er) quality location to price point ratio.

Rich information may be obtained from websites such as Realtor.com, Zillow, and local real estate blogs and forums.For out-of-state investors, investor-friendly agents are essential since they are knowledgeable about investment methods, have access to market data for the rental market, and can identify what qualities make a property a suitable investment.