I'd like overpay on systems at the beginning so that theres not a ton of pain to "make things right" down the road. 

I currently own a portfolio of 6 SFH, of which there is one that I bought a year ago and it's been a pain to deal with.After my rehab it had squatters which took around 5 months to evict, then it had to go another smaller rehab and it's still vacant despite lowering the price to the min I can live with.I do have equity in the deal but with the prepayment penalty on its mortgage it won't be enough and I'll end up with a loss (around 5k) if I sell now, on the other hand I have a loan to pay so it's costing me money each month to hold it.Would you take the loss to get rid of the headache or grind through a couple of years to be able to sell it without a loss?

Find out what pain points they have and see where you can come up with a solution.

So far just looking at Realtor.com, redfin, movoto, and Craigslist(which is a major pain, maybe im not doing it right). 

The pain is heating up, however, as our kids grow and expenses balloon.  

Bought the house and gutted it and put in new flooring, pain, decor What was the outcome?

I sometimes have to hold my breath and do things even though I know I am being played because not buying it now will be much more painful 3 years from now.

Without knowing much of your bottlenecks or pain points.

You have a pain you need solved and most would rather want that pain or problem to go away quickly.

I'm trying to decide if I should have new cabinets installed by a cabinet company or let my contractor do it - which he can do but its becoming a pain looking for the right fit and the cost of cabinets really isn't making it cheaper than just subbing it out.