Every Landlord wants to get paid, and should be paid, for services rendered, but the ways we go about it can be vastly different.

If you want anything to go towards paying the balance down, you have to pay extra.But really this is a sufficiently basic question that you should be asking your lender. :)

You will likely find that advice results in a financial benefit vastly exceeding the cost of the tax returns. 

The vast majority of the return appears to from the sale “at market value” rather than holding, repositioning, etc. that might take years to complete.  

From there, let the net income build until you have sufficient cash flow to buy another property, or sell them all to buy a small multi-family or something else.But you just have to run the numbers based on what your current properties are renting for, what your payments are, etc., and what you think you can buy additional property for. 

I too learned the vast majority of my real estate knowledge though bigger pockets podcasts, forums, and books.

Upon further though I decided to wait to increase rents until I had improved the property more sufficiently.

The truth is, you can list this with a $50k price drop and then have a flood of buyers (assuming the buyers pool is sufficient in that area) bidding it up to where it should sell at.

Except as provided in Section 9-206 of this Act, in all cases of tenancy from year to year, 60 days' notice, in writing, shall be sufficient to terminate the tenancy at the end of the year. 

@Chris Sukala If this is a foreclosure auction with the county you will be receiving a Certificate of Title which should be sufficient to prove you are the new owners.