Often times, you can tell the quality of a market just by driving through it.

Does anyone have any recommendations for high-quality professionals in the following fields (preferably people who are themselves real-estate investors):1.

I would really like the help and will pay fair just looking for good quality work with good communication. 

It's low quality and needs a new roof and gutted to the studs, anyway.

If the tenant doesn't pay any outstanding items above the security deposit we file a judgement for the balance.

There are better markets (Midwest USA for example) with good quality tenants , newer houses, better returns and not the headache of the new NY laws.

When it comes to prepping a home for renters, versus a "forever-home", do you consider the quality of material when making cosmetic updates?

(1) $1.63M minus closing costs minus $500,000 (because we can take that as cash, tax-free, and it doesn't count as boot), with a loan of at least $450,000 b/c that's how much we had outstanding on the current property(2) Only the net (let's just say like $1M, forgetting about closing costs right now, just for math's sake), minus $500,000 (because we can take that as cash, tax-free, and it doesn't count as boot), so that's about $500k that must be rolled into the new qualified property... plus we need a loan of at least $450,000 b/c that's how much we had outstanding on the current property, so we're looking at a property of about $950k-ish(3) A totally different amountTHANK YOU

If you want to do it yourself but not too much work then you can look for higher quality, stabilized properties.

When I see that, I usually take it as good but still consider other factors more heavily like length of employment, length/quality of Landlord reference, etc.