There's likely some good lessons he's learned that you may heed I'm not betting against you, but it seems like it could be a massive problem snowballing in the future.

If your property management company is good and has built an internal maintenance team which has set rates and had strong relationship relationships with licensed contractor which should keep costs in control, you should never need to shop contractors on your own I wouldn't think.So in short, our policy is give us your preferred contractors upfront if you have them, but then we work all tickets to resolution including dispatch, and payment of invoices.This is of course for operational expenses.  

It sounds like you may be a better fit for a smaller operation that still offers guided tours.

Both my wife and my background is in manufacturing, specifically operations, customer service, and project/account management. 

This is how our bookkeeping Clients operate and it works.I've heard good things about Rentredi and Rentastic for PM.

@Jay Hinrichs exactly the risk is even more than traditional development and the profit is actually less with more operational headaches.

Does anyone have any advice on effectively setting up temporary battery-operated cameras on a long-term rental property to deter break-ins and squatters while rent-ready repairs are being made before a tenant moves in?

You can just answer it without the jazz, and I bet you know a few places right off top of head where people WANT to live, right. 

@Michael Beirne Lower priced markets such as Baltimore are very difficult to operate in utilizing entirely 3rd party support.

Best bet would be a “partnership” with a monied individual looking for a high risk/high return passive investment with you providing the “active” part.