After all, why would i expect a good tenant to live in a house I wouldn't be caught dead in??

That way you don't chase a dead end.

He sees that I’m dead serious about taking good care of his money.

As I am driving up I was wondering what I was going to be able to see anyway, it's a good tenant and unless she had lost her mind I didn't know what I'd see just from driving by....and I saw the neighbor had improperly routed a new buried downspout to dump water right at our driveway; I was able to tell because the grass leading up the driveway was still part dead.

Does the oil bust mean they've gone though top dead center of the cycle, and are now heading down?  

The dead element will read zero or something close to zero.

IF the TK company does not have the people or the mentality to focus in on details like dead rodents and over-grown vegetation next to a property, then they most likely are not paying attention to the bigger issues or simply covering them up.Lastly, you have mentioned on here that you did not think you needed to visit the property (and I assume you have not visited the company in person or their offices) because the point of turnkey is to not have to do that.  

Even when you think they're dead, they're NOT dead.

Any prediction without a drop dead date is BS. 

The idea with baits is that the roach eats the bait, goes back to the nest, dies; the other roaches eat the dead one and ingest the poison and they die.Probably more than you wanted to know about roaches!