The art of REI has a lot to do with creativity and thinking outside the box.

The biggest challenge is determining which is right for you in your current circumstances, desired investment asset, financially, and experience wise.On that last note, operating a run down building in a more desirable area, if one can be found that actually offers a better value, won't require to many different skills than operating a "turn-key" building.

For letters there's also lots of options to make your mail piece stand out from the others like colored envelopes and envelope art. 

Its better to do the leg work and come up with your own criteria based on your knowledge, skills, and abilities.

Since we already own a lot of properties, we work to partner with cheap and skilled tradespeople saving maintenance costs.We are proactive in our maintenance so our tenants are happier and they stay on average longer than most tenant occupancy periods (which saves the owner on future leasing).We set up leases to end during summer months where we have the most tenants looking for new houses to rent so we can maximize rental rates.Even though we rent fast, we prioritize make ready repairs so that we can continually keep the property up to maximize rental potential and identify and get great tenants.We are proactive in our collection of rent so we evict faster than self managing investors.We perform inspections to identify how tenants are keeping the property to not renew leases to hoarders and people who break lease terms.We perform move in and move out inspections by video to document condition to charge back tenants on security deposits.For some investors, they are not as on top of all aspects of property management and they should get help (to improve ROI). 

The rest of the state will slowly follow suit once our Democrat governer is elected out of office.The work force is highly skilled and manufacturing centric, but the union mentality has tarnished things since there's an entitlement sentiment among the blue collar workers.

Yes, I have the skills to do pretty much all the work myself. 

The job is out of my DIY skill level, so DIY is not an option.

The value of a turnkey company is they do a majority of the legwork for you, so in theory that's either because your time is better spent doing something else or you lack the skill set/networking to tackle a project like that.If neither of these applies, then you're better off doing it yourself.

It takes the same skills to succeed at real estate investing as is does to succeed at anything.