Two thoughts, was that a terrible recommendation and is this something that would be required from most lenders?

A lot of newbies over-analyze this terribly.

We experienced a terrible first contractor who disappeared for weeks, followed by a slow-ish bank process to get him removed, followed by our firing the 203k consultant who was not helpful. 

These two members of your team can make the process great or terrible.

He only owned the property for 9 months and the property is in terrible shape so I'm assuming he had plans to renovate.  

It’s a terrible idea.

Memphis Invest, now REI Nation, has been around a long time and seems legit.Here's our standad response on this topic:The biggest challenges with Turnkey providers:1) Terrible renovation work - we've taken over many properties that investor bought turnkey and they were shocked to learn the true condition of their property from our TakeOver video.

Unless you have terrible credit, no DP money or no income. 

That will be great for guys like me and terrible for people starting out trying to accumulate wealth start families etc.  

Basic plumbing isn't terrible, but HVAC is hard to learn on your own.