Eliminate debt, establish a budget, and save.

LLC's have their place, but they are overhyped and new investors tend to overestimate their importance and underestimate the administrative effort.I have been a landlord for 15 years and well connected, yet I don't know anyone who was very saved by an LLC, so I asked BP nation:https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/926/topics/1151922-than...

All of my saved analysis is  glitching. 

You can go the one property route but I think doing an agreement period is much more motivating for the agent (and will save you time, hassle, etc)

We have retirement accounts, a small private stock market account, and an emergency fund. 

Both on one loan may save you a bit up front in costs, but it'll make it more complicated if you ever decide to keep one and sell one.

Most folks overestimate the cost to prepare a space for MTR, but you'll figure out cost-savings and improvements with every iteration.

They typically take a portion of whatever they save you as their fee.

Can you replace furnace, stove, etc with all electric and save 300 to 400 a month there? 

As an example, we joined an expensive, but exclusive private networking group 12 years ago.