To cover renovations, I secured a $60K hard money loan, allowing me to improve the property without a significant initial investment.

You can't call up Apple's CEO and suggest improvements, but you can definitely upgrade your rental property's kitchen to command higher rent.

I have done several multiple property 1031 exchanges throughout the state for my clients who are looking to scale and improve their investment portfolio. 

From the sentiment of your post it seems like you're viewing the buyers as strictly investors when they may lean more towards traditional homeowners looking for a quality of life improvement or an improvement on their current financial situation today.Let's say the buyer pays 465k and has a 5% interest rate.

I want to improve our asset management side.

Most are being encouraged to buy Class B-minus rentals and below, but no one corrects them about their mistake of using Class A assumptions on these rentals:When a newbie gets smacked with reality via their losses, they then can only suck it up until time improves their mistake or dump at a loss.So, my question is, why can't we all do better and grow our industry with integrity?

This was my second foray into real estate investing, the previous one being through a “full service” turnkey provider.

Improve your credit and financials so lenders are willing to take a chance on you.

Should I wait for Spring for greater inventory, or for lower rates to see if cashflow improves?

But again, your profit after selling costs (and any capex improvements) would have to be in excess of $60ok to really make sense.