At minimum, all the overgrown landscaping should be trimmed back, if not completely removed with some fresh mulch and new plants planted.  

If , for example, you offer  90k without talking to your agent and after the fact your agent finds that an offer of $80  appropriate, you already planted the seed of 90k in the seller's agent's mind...

yes, some people (who run it as a full time business) do well, just as some people who run automotive manufactures, chemical plants, and construction companies do well.

Tenant: "Don't call the police, they'll find my pot plants!"

In comparison to LTR, STR suffers a very small portion of the damage LTR's do.

Structure inside and out has suffered immensely because was not protected from the elements.

Usually they'll lean on building a lot of low quality backlinks very quickly which often gives a boost in rankings quickly... but then results suffer later. 

There is an 18billion dollar gas plant that is being built in Brownsville on the Port and is expected to bring in 5k new jobs. https://gcaptain.com/nextdecade-finalizes-18-billion-investm...I'm also told that Rio grande valley is booming in growth around areas like Mcallen and brownsville. 

It's very close to what other agent models are and it's for simple fact there is no ready way to make big cut's to those fundamental expenses without suffering major risk or loss of service. 

I am looking at a house that has suffered a lot of damage post foreclosure.