My concerns with Elmhurst have been the potential quality of tenants (still mostly students I assume), my preconceived notion that rents were lower over there, as well as specific zoning laws.

His value for the finish quality was $50k.

I would consider is that vacancy rates for that area are ~10% and to get a high quality tenant, you would need to be on the lower end for rent for that area.

I have also developed good relationships with local contractors and know quality workers. 

Remember from earlier, rates/leverage/and pricing are based on "supply" and "demand" of capital and there was an extreme "flood" of capital into the market, all while quality deals were becoming scarcer.

Barrack's expertise, what I found missing was a mechanism that would cause the banks to make a choice that was against their long term best interest, that is not to restructure what other wise are quality loan(s). 

Even if you could boot a tenant, I don't think you'd have the best luck finding a quality one at the moment. 

On the other hand, if you're planning to go pro, you might want to gear up with the top quality up front, despite the high price tag.

When they tell me the current PM it almost always is a PM who discounts fees so low there is no way that PM can afford to provide quality service.

This also gives you not only a realtor's eye who will be thinking about resale values and quality of work from a renter/buyers perspective, but also someone totally independent of the work being done (contractors) and management.