Go talk to realtors, analyze 100 deals off the MLS,talk to PMs about maintenance costs you can definitely get upto speed quickly and find a decent deal if your determined.

The quality of tenants moving currently are well above average.

Go with your gut here . . . the quality of a note lies in both the collateral and the borrower, so if due diligence was skipped on either it would be a shame.

All in all, while the numbers work out, is the quality of the tenant pool and the market in this area valid cause for concern? 

If you come across a property that is already tenant occupied with quality, on-time paying tenants, it could be that the owner just doesn't want to manage the property anymore and they want to cash out.

The garage is not a health or structural issue and I always point that out during open house viewings so there are no surprises, so I can deal with that being a manual process long term, but I do need to have the air quality checked in the unfinished basement so that if a potential tenant ever did bring up that point, I will already have inspection info present or know what avenues to take if a new inspection is required.

I have been doing this for 20 years and honestly to say you can raise rents ~110% a whole year from now where things are happening at lightning speed, most of which we have zero control over seems a bit idealistic to me. 

You trust your new 'team' on the ground.You have no idea how to manage a property with the low quality tenants.You buy in an area no PM will manage,You hire a PM that takes what little money is paid for rent for expenses or fees.What can not go wrong?

First you need to decide what quality of tenants you want to market to, then improve the home to appeal to those people.

There's a few reasons they probably have that in their contract:previously got burned from negligenceknow they are low quality and want to protect themselvesunreasonable professionalsI understand PM firms have to protect themselves but there also needs to be a level of accountability.