I think I take pretty good care of my primary residence but in 4 years I would expect at least that much damage just from normal wear and tear.I don’t think a few hundred dollars are worth the mental energy being spent.

I ran the bigger cities you mentioned through some data I've been gathering, and they came out in this order, prioritizing rentals :)Let's jump on a call if you'd like to dive into the others...they're different since they're smaller areas.Hope it helps!

Sometimes we have smaller maintenance requests and while I don't mind lowering them on the prioritization scale, it gives me heartburn thinking about who I can hire to complete the job since some companies won't even touch it.

I call this, The Plain Vanilla Business Advantage, e.g. business number/email/website/FAQs/etc...Then, YOU play the "Property Manager" role and YOU are just and employee, NOT the greedy landlord and sole decision maker...Also, I recommend doing a little something I call "Self-Service Management" ...basically, I groom my tenants to have an ownership mentality and I provide them with the tools and resources to resolve things on their own because I'm a long-distance self-managing landlord, therefore, I have to be proactive vs reactive. 

Second thing is to realize what are the most disruptive items (drywall mudding, painting come to mind) and try to prioritize these things, even if you have to pay someone else. 

People coming from an REI background are mentally very far away from that.

A lot goes into the decision, just prioritize experience, and training over split. good luck!

Being physically present can reveal nuances not apparent during a standard inspection, providing valuable insights for your investment plans.To navigate this successfully, prioritize meticulous due diligence.

If so thats great, but if not and you are just looking at numbers on an excel sheet know that these type of properties can really drain you financially and mentally. 

Prioritizing and figure out the useful life of everything in your budget is important.