It will always be difficult to get a quality drywall guy to come 'fix' a single hole in the wall.  

Dean addressed the problem of the “slum lords” that profit off of low income rental properties and have no regard for the quality of life in the community.

My rentals have products that LOOK like good quality, but for a fraction of the cost. 

Quality attorneys can find grants and other funding to do remediation.

Check if high speed internet and cable service includes a royalty to the landlord.

That's the quality you need to equal/surpass...

Reading the Ultimate Beginners Guide to Real Estate Investing, listening to as many podcast as possible (at 1.5x speed=Lifehack, thanks BP), reading through the forums, and currently creating a must read book which include The Millionaire Real Estate Investor and FLIP.  

So I kept digging into that until he was basically telling me only horrible things about the quality tenants he was getting.

Some times renting a quality property to attract quality tenants may be worth it despite it not meeting the "1%" rule that was mentioned above.  

Sounds like you found a quality contractor that worked out well for your project!