For labor, most handymen charge $40-$50/hour and often charge a flat service fee to cover their driving and shopping time.FYI: we once had a tenant call us stating that all the windows needed to be repaired.

Think about abandoned retail strip malls, boarded up restaurants, and vacant automotive shops. 

I'm currently shopping rates with my credit union and other lenders.

Court ordered appraisals are characterized by no underwriter questioning everything, no Realtors calling them idiots if they don't hit value, no appraisal management company taking a middle-man cut of the appraisal fee and shopping around for fastest/cheapest report.

In those cases, as mentioned, have investors tee'd up, financing confirmed that you qualify, and then you simply call and ask to meet for coffee. 

I'm all for supporting and shopping local but sometimes it isn't always the best option. 

I would do a little shopping around not all lenders are the same.

Also, I'd be up for meeting for coffee in a few weeks.

When I added up the time spent and money made and divided it between my business (auto service and repair shops) and the real estate I bought and build to house the business it came out like this:  80% of my time was spend on the business and 20% on the real estate, but 80% of my profits came from the real estate and 20% from the business.  

I was shopping for banks for months, but no loan officers would do the loans and I couldn't find a single lender that was doing portfolio loans.