Its not like there is a plethora of places for them to pick from to live with inventory so low. 

Sometimes it can be well worth your while to pay an experienced professional and then shadow them while they perform the work so you can pick up on their knowledge.

I have bad experience with PMs where tenant broke multiple leases in a year and I had to fight to get concessions on the leasing fee with my PM (I have couple fantastic PMs as well so its a mixed bag).I do plan to do my own diligence in picking up the tenant.

There's no wrong way, just pick a direction and go!

I suggest picking a couple zip codes, know type of property you want (i.e 3bed/2bath larger than 1,000 square feet at or below a predetermined dollar amount), and become an expert in these neighborhoods will put you around more potential deals in order to find your perfect BRRRR.   

We had an old trailer 1990 model that we picked up for $1500 & we put it on our 5 acres with the farm/multi unit bldg.

Pick up the BP BRRRR book!

I usually pick out which ones I'm interested.I gave one agent 1-4 homes to look into and not really feeling good about his responsiveness.

It seems like it might be best to find that middle 'sweet spot' and go with the median level of finish then in your case (sounds like not wanting to invest a lot to update, and want to keep cash flow at max.)If I were to run comps and see on the high end of area rentals it meant all new countertops, appliances (high end), hard wood/laminate, kitchen cabinets etc and on the low end it meant more of an 'apartment level' finish - I personally would go for the middle road to this and maybe choose to refinish countertops, refinish kitchen cabinets and go strictly mid-range on appliances (I would pick up the extend warranties personally).In hitting the kitchen and baths, getting some fresh paint up and addressing flooring- I would know the heavy 'where the eyes are drawn to' items were checked off my list, take it all for expenses come tax time and be pretty happy to know I was right in the middle zone for the area- I wouldn't have the lowest quality of renter pool in the area, or be worried about overpricing myself out of the competition on the high end in my mind. 

Don't pick the first person to take your phone call.