On the flip side of that, hiring extra people because you don't have the right tools for productivity and make up for it in shear manpower leads to extra mouths to feed when the job is done and you are waiting to start the next job.  

But they are consistently hitting 15-25% returns.Then you move to the second tier of sponsors where the deals are more speculative (think Vegas land plays ten years ago) or the deals are relatively small (e.g. inner block development).  

This will allow you to keep tabs on who is showing, and makes it easy to call back for feed back.

Quote from @Lisa Graesser: Honestly I would rather have dogs then kids, but you can't charge extra for kids, 😀 I set out leftover food from my STRs to feed wild animals in my yard. 

But consistent attention to the basics is how you make money in this business... and it's also how you avoid losing your shirt. 

I'd love to feed the data for all cities/neighborhoods into a spreadsheet and create a weighted score for each locale.

This is consistent with your experience, I think.I completely agree that professional letters on letterhead announcing a new property management company (or landlord) and pay-or-quit notices shape up tenants quickly who have been taking advantage of the self-managed, overly accommodating landlord.It's amazing to me how many landlords tolerate not getting paid.  

Then I have the tenant issues to deal with.I do hope to invest in my own backyard one day, but i'd like to get consistent cash flow from out of state income properties first.  

The one UT-related event that books consistently is graduation weekend in May.

The property has been consistently rented and he makes his payments, but I have a feeling that his credit score is low because he's trying to buy as many properties as he can in this market.