Job included inside work of leveling floors, installing flooring, paint walls, kitchen cabinets, etc in both units, as well as lay a new driveway, fence the back yard, provide attic fans, and install electric to the crawlspace to add lights and a sump pump.

@Chris Kay it depends what level of renovation you are doing!

And the reason why your "tale of two halves" will play out as you described.Demand:  This has actually been high almost all along, but rent growth hasn't materialized in response due to high levels of new supply. 

The "big" firms like AA may get a lot of hype but they generally can't compete on the next level tax strategies (Family office type strategies) nor customer service as their employee turnover is quite high.  

THEY ARE STEALING FROM YOU (remember your remark about him not even getting a fast food/entry level job? 

Yes, about 82% of properties are matched to a person in DealMachine - you get their phone, email, age, birthday, income level, renting OR owning.

-> Where to find people (architects, surveyors, etc): it’s hard to find people who operate on a national level, except for the main real estate agents.

You should not get a PM until you have scaled to a level that requires it.

Thank you Corey, that's a great and thorough high level perspective.

This is a fine example of where to research out of state investments as the housing prices to purchase are still reasonable and low (not like California where I am and entry level house SFR is a million dollars).