But then over time, work towards a nicer property than the competition, and higher rates, even at the expense of a little occupancy.  

In particular, your schedule E where you report income and expenses.

Agents run the gamut on what they charge from very cheap to very expensive. 

Not all of it's expensive either. 

The issue is, I fell for his traps and gave him 75% of the payment (around 35k) because he kept saying he needed it to get done soon and I did not want to extend my lease too much because it was very expensive to do so.

If you're hiring a property management company, make sure to do your due diligence and choose a reputable company with experience in the area.Financials: It's important to crunch the numbers and make sure the rental income will be enough to cover expenses and generate a profit.

Hey Randee, totally can relate with you being from an expensive real estate market - I moved to Columbus a few years ago (from Portland, Oregon which was super expensive) to become a full time real estate investor, and ever since, I've completed quite a lot of BRRRRs, flips, and own a successful rental portfolio here in Columbus Ohio.

HOWEVER, be prepared that an u/w may find the numbers higher than usual for the area and may scrutinize this further. if there is indication this is room-by-room, it likely will be a no-go, and you could end up being hit for the expense of the property without any income to help offset it on your DTI. 

There’s one channel manager that has not been mentioned here that uses a hotel backend to enhance Seo through xml api.

. $145K is expensive for that area.