It may be tempting to treat them as one property and do what is called "cross collateralization" in order to maximize the amount you can borrow.

(I'm not including expected appreciation in my ROI numbers, I'm just treating that as a bonus). 

This not only relates to tenant's likelihood to fall behind on rent, but it also corresponds to how well they will treat your property. 

Real estate investing works out best when treated with a crockpot approach instead of microwave. 

Qualified applicants that get priced out of rapidly improving neighborhoods will move into these areas but it seems like they aren’t biting.High quality, lower income applicants aren’t stupid and they won’t settle.If you think this area is a losing proposition, I would think about selling and not banking on hope.In regard to vacancy, I don’t consider any area that has average occupancy (economic and physical) below 95%You might pay more for a better area but time will treat you right and you’ll make a ton of money in equity over the long term.

From day one I treated my involvement in real estate as a real business.This means, I had an advertising budget, a lead generating and follow up process, a back end process and money source and above all an experienced mentor.  

I would look up NARPM and start with them..Below are some questions I would think would be a good starting point for you to see who really treats their company like a business or a hobby.

Adhere to the Fair Housing Act and ensure that all applicants are treated equally.

They were selling on pro forma, but the market and the debt market have shifted, and it's aa lot harder to achieve higher pricing with lower rents.We've purchased over 2,000 units, and the simple answer to the question is that they are either mom and pops and run their businesses with ZERO KPIs, they do not want to risk losing tenants if they raise rents, and they don't treat their asset as a business.When you take over, it can be difficult to get rents to market if they are very suppressed.

Some manufacturered companies treat it as personal property not real property.