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?  

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

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.

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.

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

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!

Then add staging, and now into marketing, how to pump it out there for maximum exposure, now we are paying all these sites to list and promote, burning a few hundred on FB ad's, a few hundred on this site, a few hundred on that site.

Somewhat of a burn. 

You will burn through several of each before you settle on a more permanent person, and even then they can disappoint at any time.2.