I'd like to use a general form that I can present to all contractors during the biding process that way when all bids are in I can compare apples to apples and find out who is actually giving me a deal.

There are some deals in Los Angeles, San Diego, and, occasionally, Orange County, but the best "bang for the buck" is the Inland Empire (Riverside and San Bernardino Counties) and up in the high desert areas of Victorville and Apple Valley.Hope this helps.

Single bedroom condo 1 mile from Apple Spaceship campus .

Have already gone through some bad apples and so looking for a strong recommendation who is reliable and honest.

@Sandra Jorgensen @Neil Narayan - likely because Cedar Park is pretty much land locked, Round Rock is somewhat "central", good schools, good proximity to major employers, Leander is close to the new Apple campus, and with land availability somewhat cheaper?

Let's not compare apples to oranges, and expect equality. 

I have a section for evaluating it as a flip, and another one for evaluating rentals - it allows me to evaluate a rental in three different scenarios - regular purchase, ideal price and BRRR scenario - and also to compare deals apple-to-apple (since you'll be looking at so many houses that you'll get lost in numbers and features and no longer know which one is a good deal, which one is not and only looks good because of some subjective criteria, etc.).

I'd try to get an idea of typical response times from those who would be responding to my needs--at different times of the year (Does Y always go on 2 weeks vacation in September, creating a backlog of work that holds up quarterlies--how do they handle maternity leave, etc...).Things such as above, in addition to specifics of your businesses.I would also ask them to draw up an apples to apples mock yearly cost for gross services, and discuss audit costs and audit payment plans, as well as where they fall on aggressiveness of tax write offs, from conservative to potentially dodgy, and make sure that fits your risk profile.Everyone will have different opinions about what is important to them, and in person visits might help clear the muddy waters a bit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?

But I'll take a tall white hot chocolate or hot apple cider from Starbucks almost anyday!!

So spending time & money trying to get them to pay for said damages is a non starter.Understand that proper tenant screening is a must. but it does not mean you will eliminate all bad apples.