However, Northern Utah seems to me an extremely hot market right now, with deals closing before they can even hit the MLS.

Right now there are definitely more units available than average, but they aren't staying on the market for extremely long.

of course he may have been a clueless dude in Indy and other markets and to me the money he was making just blinded him and his wife.. the move to Portugal was strategic to the extreme.

It's extremely frustrating but perhaps/hopefully it has made me a better investor? 

Limited supply of an extremely useful technology = DEMAND.

Go to Etsy and search for "rental property tracker," and you will find hundreds of nice spreadsheets to track 10-20 rentals, usually for under $10.Software has extremely helpful features like online payments, marketing syndication (click a button, and your property is advertised on multiple sites), electronic document review/signing, maintenance tracking, and owner reports.

Thank you, that is extremely helpful. 

Bob went to the extreme extent of actually using an alias of Bob Stevens instead of using his real name, Bob Prisco.We do not need to re-litigate the facts of his behavior and all of the other inconsistencies in his communications.

It's obviously a lot more complicated to compare the different business models, making the blanket statement "Us commishes are 3x higher" extremely flawed logic.

Your boss seems to be extreme with this and won't change - unless you force it.Why don't you make a list of everything you do each for a week?