Start by looking at the National Association of Residential PM's and see if there is a firm in the area where your property is.

He has equity, but the amount he would end up with, after all the costs associated with selling the house, would not be worth it.

I had looked into cash-out refi-ing before, but ran into the ~548k maximum loan as a blocker (which in hindsight is puzzling, because it looks like the LA county jumbo loan threshold is ~822k)If your property appraises high enough to be a jumbo here are 3 options: get the jumbo loan with the associated terms (but the rate the jumbo rates are pretty low right now, recently quoted 3.5% to 3.75% depending on buy down at 75% on $1m loan), lower the LTV to fall below jumbo rates, look for lender that will keep loan in house). good luck

And then if the applicant passes past LL's and employment verification and our own screening, we show them the unit and if they like it. and we like them, we do the credit and BG check through our local LL association; the applicant pays.

Start with your local Real Estate Investors Associations (REIA's).  

I have heard really good things about Ellsworth and Associates.

The downside to becoming your own agent is that you will have a fair amount of expenses associated with hanging your license and you will essentially be hiring a newbie (yourself). 

If they cannot tell you how much they have in reserves then don't buy into their building (I made this mistake and only found out later that the state of the association was a total mess).

When Schedule E is used to calculate qualifying rental income, the lender must add back any listed depreciation, interest, homeowners’ association dues, taxes, or insurance expenses to the borrower’s cash flow.

As an aside, did you ever offer this property to business associates or customers current or potential.