Maybe getting a referral from people who are respectful of the property will bring you a better quality tenant?

They can't assess all the subjective data like overall layout, view from the living room window, the dogs next door that bark all day, the width of doorways, size of individual rooms, quality of kitchen cabinets and appliances, etc.The best thing to do is study your market regularly.

Perhaps a better vetting of the buyers on the BP side will enable better quality leads?

Are their listings detailed with good-quality photos?

The success of your cold call (or any marketing) campaign depends on  the quality  of  data (leads)  that you are using.

Success in this field doesn’t happen overnight—it requires years of strategic investing, continuous education, and persistence.The key is to focus on growing markets, quality neighborhoods, and building a strong support team.

From the Great Recession to Q1 2022 it was easy to find RE that seemed very likely to produce outstanding return. 

The license doesn't cost more, the service and quality does.And a note on that cost, in my experience hiring contractors, only a small percentage of the cost savings was due to finding the right guy who is willing to work for less.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

As you already know, the quality of the investor agent will speed up your learning curve, and save you money, time, and headaches.