You always hire professional cleaners if it's an old person's home and construction cleaners if it's a disaster area.

Hi Saurabh,  I am from the area and an experienced investor and agent. 

How do I educate and reach the young(ish) professionals on the value proposition of these kind of "starter homes" to build equity, learn property management and save a ton of money relative to single unit purchases? 

Have you experienced any battles with cheapskate owners?

the first step that I would take is to find an investor from the realtor in your area and you can build a lot of your network just piggybacking off of theirs with their recommendations of contractors and other professionals biggerPockets has a great tool for finding realtors.

They paid the rent and you haven't given them an opportunity to fix the other issues.You may want to reach out to more experienced investors to understand what having a rental is really like because what you described is fairly normal. 30% of our portfolio is late every month but your only concern is if they actually pay.

Is it worth investing in SFRs for a part-time, non-professional investor?

I would look for other types of travelers in addition to traveling medical professionals.

Realtors also have insurance, tons of regulation, and hopefully experienced brokers that are all very interested in protecting you from scams during the home sale process.This is a scam. 

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?