My experience with both of them has been good.Are you looking for someone who will tear the place apart and provide a report that makes it sound like it will be condemned or someone who gives very practical and pragmatic context and suggestions?

With your schedule it would be beneficial to find a way to invest passively or semi-passively by either lending to an investor who is doing things in your market, or through an established online platform or fund that you invest in completely passively.

But this symptom on the blinds matches nothing I can find online around former meth-labs.Anyone ever heard of or seen anything like this? 

I would say as a client it has very little practical implications under which umbrella an agent operates; the key issue is to work with someone who understand what you are looking to do, preferably has done it themselves and can advise you.

Let me answer your questions first, then, I will provide comments and my own questions.Billing tenants for owner paid utilities will depend on what is acceptable practices in that area.  

I could not find any reference to prior poster's 60 day comment, however it may well be true and in respect of your tenant and for honest business practice,  giving your tenant as much notice as possible should be done.   

About 20-40% of my practice has been real estate related. 

I'd want someone easy to work with, who pays on time, and who has a track record demonstrating ability, along with a few references.For that last point- I had a 10 unit deal that practically hit me in the face about 5 years ago.

Unlike leads you can order online from a generic website, I can guarantee that the leads I pull are fresh (60 days or less), off market, and I use a ranking system to determine which sellers are most motivated based off of factors such as the executor of the property living in a different state and the amount of siblings the house has been inherited by.

The real world answer is, there is practically a 0% likelihood of you actually getting a deal done.