With a little bit of preventative work such as no frills in the apartment (refrigerator with a water dispenser or garbage disposal), a strong lease agreement and a list of skilled tradesmen, you should be able to self-manage.

Furthermore, its more of a way to make sure that they have insurance (and collect a fee) as opposed to verifying their skill level.

We had a licensed general contractor do the skilled work.

Keep in mind that this site has investors of all skill levels and in all different kinds of properties/markets.

Primarily considering it to protect personal assets with having a lot skilled labor needed on job sites, and hopefully many projects.

A good agent will more than pay for him/herself by providing good negotiation skills and connections to solid buyers. 

I suggest your first book should be a text book for agents in pursuit of a license, it will contain the non-fiction, business basics you need to know and it will be the quickest way to get up to speed so that you may apply your management skills.

I think most people in business want to be liked, in fact, sales success has always been linked to strong interpersonal skills.

Tradesman InternationalMadden Industrial Craftsman & Labor Ready all 3 large temp agencies in the Seattle area for skilled and unskilled construction workers.  

The county health department may hold records and certainly the bureau of vital records.