They said that I had to trim any branches 10 feet or closer to the house.

See who's meter is picking it up.We trim our 8 plex with white holiday lights every year and two of the strings must be plugged in the patio plugs of tenants the other two are plugged into the laundry room plug (that we pay for).

For doors, lumber, trim, cabinetry go to your local lumber yard a make a deal.

It needs to be drywalled, painted, trimmed, floored, etc. 

It included all new high end appliances & a walk-in pantry, a complete pine ceiling, cedar trim & walls.

Once I had been through enough houses at certain price points, I started to know what a $100K house felt/looked like vs. a $150K house.For estimating rehab costs, I spent a lot of time in home improvement stores learning costs of commonly used materials (paint, doors, trim, flooring, windows). 

We've had the place deep cleaned in the past but that was like $400 and took 4 hours (it's a 1,150sq ft unit with fancy wood trim, tall windows, claw food tub, etc).

We typically pay by the job, not the hour...but our main crew (who do most/all of our painting, finish electrical, finish plumbing, carpet, vinyl, minor sheetrock, siding/trim, gutters, minor cabinet work, etc) generally average about $25/hour if you average things out.As Aly said, it's a bit more than most, but I would trust these guys implicitly (I'd probably trust them babysitting my kids), so that adds a lot of value to what they're doing...

Exterior paint, window and door trim and painted surfaces.

Kill the existing ground cover and trim the trees & bushes.