That is a personal choice based on your appetite for risk. 

i dont know "when" if 2020 is right or not but i do personally think that these mega plex luxury buildings are going to feel some serious pain the problem is that theres still so much capital floating around trying to find yield that even if they take a big haircut on price or large vacancy ... there will still be appetite for the riskone thing that could put a big change in the market and probably not talked about as much is the Millennials will stop wanting to live in a box and will start wanting to move into a house.... suburbs that have been basically looked down upon will find itself going thru a renaissance we are already seeing suburbs starting to get things like trendy coffee shops, art centers, etc to make them more geared toward millennials ... this will continue and i think the "city living" in metros that are not nyc sf will see an influx to places i know what you are thinking "ok Alex sure... but what will be the catalyst will be for this change in behavior?"

Definitely use separate accounts, whether you have an LLC or not.Checking: receive rent, pay billsSavings: hold deposit and reserves for capex, maintenance, taxes, insurance, etc.When your checking account has more money than is necessary to pay bills, transfer the excess to the Savings account where you can build funds for a new investment.

Not excessively. 

Do we leave that excess in the account after paying the mortgage?

It appears to me that you are being excessively conservative in your time periods per capital expense. 

It really depends upon your appetite for risk, willingness to shoulder more work for the return, and patience for that higher yield!

You can make it clear to the tenants that they will be held responsible for excess damage or waste caused by the animal,  just as if they themselves did it.While you need to be careful to avoid a claim of retailation,   maybe schedule the next couple rent increases to be a couple percent more than you otherwise would,  and bank those funds towards expected greater turnover costs.  

There are numerous part time agents in this area doing in excess of $3 million annual volume.I know this comes down to my own goals and risk tolerance, but do any of you have an opinion or advice when deciding who to go with?

So my buy and hold portfolio does spill off a fair amount of excess cash reserves .