And, wow, it works for the rental company!

A partner of mine who worked for a RE development and research company says they regularly used Yimby data for studies. 

I don't want to go to a company like h&r block, but none of the indie people have reviews or reputations. 

One of the mortgage companies has approved me, subject of course to an appraisal.

You don't need to...markups in retail are pretty uniform throughout the supply chain, and for public companies like Walmart, you can look at their quarterly filings to determine exactly what their margins are.With contractors, you don't have this same level of transparency, so if you want to ensure that you're getting reasonable prices, you need to do some additional investigation...

If the AC is not working you will need an HVAC company to come out and tell if it's fixable or needs to be replaced.To be honest, everything you are saying indicates you are going to create a money pit for yourself.

Do we write a check and have the Title company hold it until work is complete?

*Insurance company came by, did an inspection and stated the property was vacant.

Interview a couple of management companies and get their income projections, but definitely be conservative. 

We have a small management company and our common practice is to inspect the units every three months or so.