Didn't want to finish the job as described and did generally cruddy work, to the point we have not used him again.As noted, there is no right or wrong answer.  

Some are better at certain types of repairs and I don’t want to lead you in the wrong direction.

You’ll want to make them feel like they’re going to be in a stable housing situation for the long term.Asking them if anything is wrong with the property and making some slight improvements is a great way to justify the increase.

Zillow's business model failed to produce a profit.Where Did Zillow Go Wrong?

Also, consider hiring an attorney with experience in this type of real estate transactions as well just in case anything goes wrong during escrow. 

Does anyone have success stories in any of these markets or advice for someone who is VERY new to all this and is maybe a bit anxious about getting it wrong?

We don’t know any PMCs to recommend in the area mentioned, but since selecting the wrong PMC is usually more harmful than selecting a bad tenant, you might want to read our series about “How to Screen a PMC Better than a Tenant”:https://www.biggerpockets.com/member-blogs/3094/91877-how-to-screen-a-pmc-better-than-a-tenant-part-1-services-and-processesWe recommend you get management contracts from several PMCs and compare the services they cover and, more importantly, what they each DO NOT cover.

Describe exactly what is wrong with it. 

Lastly, I have no right to tell you whether you are right or wrong for your choice so please forgive me if I come off that way.

Lovely LVP floors with a special subfloor for warmth . . .So, then we had about two years of figuring out exactly what was wrong and fixing it . . . flooded each time we had a really hard rainstorm (we can get 4 inches in an hour!)