Other guys will waste the day away and run off with your money or materials.

Second, you will learn to help them out by running errands (picking-up materials), supervising contractors working on properties, making the lunch run for the mentor etc. etc. etc.  

Repairs are billed at $25/hour plus cost of materials.

But if the boards are a little warped, they should relax and flatten on their own after some time.Question: Did the installer let the material acclimate to the room for a couple of days before installation?

If you are soliciting unknown people you need to look at syndicating and learning about that first.Any promotional materials you would need to read Bigger Pockets rules and learn about becoming a paid member and posting in the marketplace section.Thanks

I want to get a good rent, but also don't want to spend 30k on all the top quality materials. 

It would not hurt to get some more price quotes, I think you have less than 300 dollars worth of material, so the labor is about 4500?

Rather than offering high-priced guru material, the education is free, there's no sales pitch, and they are completely honest about it.They'll show you how they find properties.

He was attempting to get a 70 year old man to pull out a home equity loan against the home he'd been in for 30 years, in the amount of 35,000,  just to gain access to their software and educational material for a year. 

So you would need money for labor and materials, then the HML inspects the work, then you get reimbursed.