I have two phones, one for business and one for personal.

Good morning @Cosmo DePintoHuntsville is an exceptional market where I’ve personally seen investors’ portfolios thrive.

I personally really like the suburbs, and that's where I have most of my rental properties. 

The quality of answers to your are directly correlated to the quality of your questions asked.  

They not only went to our office, but also the personal residences of myself and Kevin Bupp.

Not being on the ground makes it difficult to monitor progress and judge the quality of work.

With enough knowledge you can make a educated decision on which approach you take.My experience:I personally don't sign up for any program who take you aside during events and try to sell packages that is just blatant sales strategy.Once you sign up there is every attempt to make you sign for their programs for bookkeeping, registered agent, LLC or corp setup fee which have ridiculous even with platinum membership.Basic standard structure they suggest to take advantage of multiple deductions can be easily achieved by proper education or work with a good firm like https://wcginc.com  who is local to you.A umbrella C-crop to manage all other LLC properties and take advantage of many tax deductions that are not available with a llc, its also used to take losses up to 100K as startup expenses and dissolve the entity after few years.Few LLC entities for investing in Real Estate, etc preferably in Wyoming or Nevada ( you can find many companies online who can do this for $150 compared to anderson $1500-$3000) , they will claim they have a secret Operating agreement which is bogus.They certainly try to take advantage of tax loopholes and claim to be smart people, my view they are just taking advantage of numbers as per their own statements.

Could be a business decision based on keeping long-term high quality tenants rather than risk the costs on turnover. 

It separates your personal assets from your business, providing a safeguard if any legal issues arise related to tenants or the property.

Find someone where there is a personal connection and at some point your relationship now or later can benefit the mentor.