Understand the fees involved and calculate the total cost for an entire year of management so you can compare the different managers.

I then compared them in a spread sheet, eliminated any that fell outside of my criteria and did a walk-thru of the remaining.

Yes, get the owner to sign the PSA at the as is value, approach the bank as the potential buyer and would want the bank to finance the works - (you will need to get a full estimate of works to be done, comparables, and income projections etc.)

The interest will be more than half compared to HML, and they will be easily get approved. 

Is it expensive or comparable to normal capex reserve?

Staged homes spend half the time on the market compared to non-staged homes and they regularly sell for about 6% above the listed price. 

Like you I noticed that the properties were cheap compared to the rents and compared to other areas of PA.

I suggest you run the numbers, if it's a cash-flow deal, look at the projected 3rd yr value and compare that to the last five years of market trends for the area. 

How high taxes are is relative, as people here complain, however compared to your neck of the woods they are a pittance.  

I'd says things like; "You are fixated on square footage determining if a house is comparable but you are comparing single story houses to my two story and single stories cost more to build and typically sell for more than two stories of equal square footage" and would get told "if you don't like it go to the review board".What's the bet that next year when we try to use comps from early 2019 when the market has been soft they won't accept them if the market has gotten stronger towards year end.