It's also important to remember that low maintenance costs don't last forever, and that will an increase expense item as time passes. 

For the most part its just health and safety items, which are items we should have remedied anyways.As someone else mentioned, biggest thing to avoid is having the house tagged as vacant which the city will do if it sits empty for too long (handful of months, grass not cut, etc).

The 25K would go towards a rate buy down.As far as accounting for cap ex and maintenance for newly replaced/updated items, I'd still recommend doing it.

Covering most of the routine maintenance items here. 

I've even heard of GCs using auction type settings for returned items at Home Depot and Lowes for steep discounts.I've learned a lot about the GC game as I was up close to over 40 projects last two years and some went well and some did not and when they did not it was all Contractor related.If a GC isn't sourcing cheap materials at the same time milking the hell out of his 150-200 per day workers, then you can find yourself eating into your margins real fast. 

I am also looking for information regarding fee structures, and what item's that should be and should not be included in the management fee calculation. 

A STR is both a business and a real estate investment.Having little oversight on a newly formed business would make me anxious also.As others have suggested, you should consider going to the area for the initial items(Purchase, renovation, etc).Once you buy 1-2 properties, you can look to unload these items to someone else.Best of luck

Water heater 12 years to replacement (may need some service before replacement).Recognize many cap ex items are years away.  

The resources are abundant - spreadsheets, contracts, tangible items to help you succeed.

If your only way of making money from an item is hoping that in the future someone else will pay more than you did, then that is gambling.