One recommendation is find a good property manager, he will be an important key player

Unless you're doing a lot of transactions and understand the process as well as a competent (key word) buyer's agent does, I don't recommend buying without your own agent at all. 

The opposite is true.Is it a good idea to hire a basketball coach so you can be a better player?

And we are in a market where we have 9 renters competing for one apartment, so I would not worry about 60 days.But, be careful with modifications.

Over the course of time I have grown to appreciate players like Chris Seveney and some others, but it took me time.

Have a property (new build) in North East SA, rented for a year & unable to rent for almost ~10 months now, selling in this market would incur > 100K loss as impossible to compete with builders.

@Suzanne Player, I suspect that can be buffed out of the surface.

My realtor said the seller went with a cash offer for 355k no inspection, no appraisal and closing in 21 days... tough to compete. 

This is because I realized that it's mostly about cheap all-inclusive resorts you can't compete against and all short-term renters I met across the country hated Punta Cana for that very same reason.

If you consult them on matters that you are not competent in (like giving expert valuation of their property's worth in the market) , you could be in trouble.