Sorry to hear you both are hitting a rough patch in your lives. 

My view is that in order to really make this work, there is a minimum fixed cost of involvement (in terms of time and education) but it scales well, so it's efficient to do this in scale.However, in doing that analysis, it's hard to project what profitable deals will look like if interest rates are materially higher than they are today.

The reality of the 1031 is if you hit with a lower offer the seller might not get enough proceeds to 1031 and might just keep the property.

The new units are much more efficient though (small consolation)

I think when we do "correct" it will be more like, hitting the top really quickly and then sliding back a good 5%.  

I'm a licensed REALTOR in Michigan (solely for my own investing), which makes access to the property and to information as efficient as possible. 

How do you prepare the property efficiently without running up a huge bill since you do not know whether you will be having a renter or buyer?

I was actually surprised to see with your two properties that you hit at least the 5 unit threshold for rent control.  

The magic numbers are 1-4 units is residential, but as soon as you hit 5 units, the game changes. 

If that doesn't happen and a capex repair hits it takes many of them under.