We expereinced an anomaly of “temporary” demand from the flood of August 2016 that delayed the expected declines and softening of the rental market.  

However - this decreases the total amount of conventional mortgages you can get if you did it separately.

You can see the rent has steadily decreased.

Residential taxes are a drain on local municipalities so they never decrease the assessment unless you contest the taxes, which is done often in Alabama.

However, if you consider the actual cash flow from a rental property, cash flow tends to decrease over time unless you are agressive about rent increases. 

You're net worth on paper may decrease but you're still making money... assuming rents don't sharply decline, which is unlikely.

I have been assigned to a temporary EXPAT in Suzhou, China for 18 months.

You might make 900/month on those 3 Gastonia properties that are the same price as one Harrisburg property that only cash flows 200/300 per month On the other hand, the Gastonia properties will have high turnover and the occasional drama from vacancy and/or needed repairs, that will decrease their valueLots to consider:  nothing is ever easy :)I can't imagine managing properties from across the Country. 

I wouldn't advise someone in Real Estate to milk applications because even if the pulls combine, the underwriters will still see the number of new accounts, and the AAOA (average age of accounts) will decrease significantly with the number of new accounts being established.

But does such a conversion add or decrease value/appeal for later sale?