Once you have several to compare you will get an idea of what the average for your situation is.

Wanted to compare their scope of services offered / pricing. 

So please, go ahead and continue to compare apples to oranges.

A great buyers agent will be able to help you fine tune your strategy, highlight market trends, knows where and what to look for, hook you up with the best lenders, inspectors, contractors, etc, get you the full background on a property and the sellers, knows how a particular property compares to other deals and what a great deal looks like, identify untypical risks and knows what to look for before you waste time and money on an offer & homeinspection just to cancel the deal later, get the lowest possible offer accepted, oversee the transaction and handle all the paperwork, including title work and appraisal, knows how to approach a short sale differently from a REO, negotiate inspections and repairs successfully and help you make more money, safes you time and lower your risk every step of the way.Sounds like you signed with someone who provides value by knowing lockbox numbers?

It is neutral ground compared to their living room in my property, which is probably what the article was getting at. 

Bob, this is comparing apples to oranges.

Understand the fees involved and calculate the total cost for an entire year of management so you can compare the different managers.

I then compared them in a spread sheet, eliminated any that fell outside of my criteria and did a walk-thru of the remaining.

Yes, get the owner to sign the PSA at the as is value, approach the bank as the potential buyer and would want the bank to finance the works - (you will need to get a full estimate of works to be done, comparables, and income projections etc.)

The interest will be more than half compared to HML, and they will be easily get approved.