But at the same time, it’s nice to only get a few apps per opening and for those to be of generally higher quality.

To Mason's point, if their goal is to make money, you get what you pay for and the quality of work they're willing to pay for may not be to your standard.

Not every appraiser knows what they're doing so I'd only use one if I had a property that had some unique qualities or was in the luxury market.

@Shivam Patel here's an easy solution to all your questions...make friends with a quality lender.

We started out buying near turnkey for the first two properties and looked at the trajectory we were on with those and figured out it wasn't going to really speed our path to financial freedom by the margin we wanted it to.

  #3  Speed up closing to a couple of weeks.

I would not pour time and energy into someone of lesser quality, particularly when you are just starting out.

@Nathan G. correct, if I don't see positive sign in next few days, do you feel , I can try talking to realtor just to start thinking to sell... and have realtor visit the house (with prior appointment ) so tanent may start speeding up?

Quality of life is high, but overall cost of living is comparatively low when viewed from, say, a Californian's perspective.

That will always point you in the right direction and get you better quality tenants and possibly, free referrals from those tenants, once your place becomes vacant, eventually.