One of my next steps is to acquire a property in the Island around Sunshine Coast or Salt Spring Islands.

You may be thinking purely of the property-finding aspect, but there's a lot more to consider.First off, as an unrepresented buyer, the only sellers who will take you seriously are usually going to be FSBO's, who may not know any better, or scumbags who know they can take wild advantage of you - any listing agent worth their salt is going to see an unrepresented buyer as a tremendous liability and amount of work for themselves and their seller. 

We had three offers at full price and the appraiser had the balls to say that salt lake is a "stable" market and barely gave us any consideration for the upgrades done.

Pest control sprays and says they will be back out in a couple weeks to check on the progress, etc.

Here is an example of how that is most acurately estimated IMO:https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/CapEx_Aricle_TABLE_1.pngThose are my initial thoughts with the grain of salt that there are no details about the type of unit and I do not know your market.

I currently operate out of Salt Lake City, Utah.

Hello Nate,Since you are in NJ i would suggest something and take it with a grain of salt.

You can still sprinkle a little grain of salt on what they are saying, but the commentary about the law provided there is quite valuable as a new landlord. 

I let her know I'll spray the Bac A Zap in the attic again and do another search for a rodent (which I don't think I'll find), but the stench might not go away for a while. 

We are close to the ocean and the salt air is rough on vehicles.