Only want to get away from the PMI and other red tape that FHA entails.What other speed bumps may I run into?

Short of having sensors, high speed wifi, and video surveillance that would invade your tenants privacy nothing replaces the human touch. 

I wish you the very best...God Speed, Michael Short 

Recently, the realtor I’ve been using for almost a decade and I looked at a property that was almost perfect... except it needed literally $125-150k of work to bring it up to speed, which was about 40% of its ARV.

If this is not a "deal", then why go at his speed instead of yours?

Also, working with more experienced partners/mentor can help speed up your learning curve.Good Luck !!

What is your trick, tactic or method to get them to speed things up and get done?

I agree that speed seems to be one of the most critical aspects of a sale right now in this hot market.

I have one tenant who tells me when they are going on vacation now, they were an inherited tenant and we have done 3 projects (two floorings and a bathroom) in the apartment when they were away to bring it up to speed.

Yes, we all wish lenders moved at a quicker speed as they are the bottleneck in the process, and hold us up as well.