I talked to the PM before I decided on her. I also called some of her tenants-- one of whom it turned out I actually know, so I trust her review, and all the tenants gave me the same story of the PM being prompt and resolving issues a.s.a.p., so I'm pretty confident that she'll be good. I'm meeting her today, so we'll see if we still like her and what her expectations are compared to mine. I also don't know of any other PM companies in the area that I would want to do business with. I have heard horror stories from multiple tenants about one, another is run by a real estate company who had trouble getting back to me in a timely fashion when I wanted to work for them (even though the owner had been apparently effusive about wanting to work with me), one is run by my former hometown mayor (town gov't is super dysfunctional), and the others I was not impressed by when I was trying to work for them as an intern or something (UNPAID, no less). It was kind of process of elimination.
The tenant requirements summarized on her website are very similar to the ones I've seen from successful landlords-- like yours, Rachael: high credit score, income 3x rent, and good rental history. We're definitely planning on "no pets"
We're open to selling, but renting will work better for us in a few respects. There are a couple outbuildings on the property, one of which could be developed into an ADU, which would give us a place to stay if we come back to visit family (both our immediate families are in the area), and I value having an alternate income stream over a chunk of cash*. We also don't have a mortgage, so there shouldn't be cashflow issues on that front.
*Interesting to note that the expected value of the current sales price according to the 4% rule is $433/mo (assuming a sales price of $130k, which may be high), is about the same as my expected cash flow from rent (assuming $900 rent which is low, 10% management, 1/12 vacancy, and 25% of gross for maintenance).