I had what appeared to be a nice, well-dressed family apply for one of my rentals. 

We told him to finish dressing and get out. 

I have the bathrooms dressed with primary color towels, and a few candles to light in the fireplace, but that's it.

That's often used to dress up a junk rental and make it look good.

I won't go on with the novel, but he are some other red flags: 1) When I showed up to the acquisition manager's house, his wife was running late as she was coming from two eviction hearings at court that morning. 2) At one point on the tour, a young man dressed in stereotypical ghetto ware approached both the PM and Myself in front of a house (I wasn't sure if he was going to try and sell us drugs or what) and said that we didn't look like we belonged in the neighborhood and "are you guys investors?".

Moving a coin laundry is a lot more complicated than moving a dress shop or a convenience store.

He used this tactic to give the seller at best the same or at worst FAR less than others had offered, but dressed the offer up in such a way to make an unsophisticated buyer think she got a deal. 

Some people will tell you to look at how they dress or the car they drive, but that's not always a good indicator; I know plenty of people that take great pride in their car but not their home, and I know people that have excellent homes but drive beaters that are trashed by their kids.There's always more to it, but that's the basic gist.

By the same token, if you have tenants with bad value systems, they'll try to take advantage of you regardless of what you drive or how you dress. 

Learn the real estate lingo and sound and dress professionally.It is important you choose a niche and focus on brokers who deal with this niche.