My guess solely looking at your numbers is that it's an older/distressed property which means you have to account for more costs in capex. 2nd thought being it's not in the best of neighborhood then you'd have to take into consideration lower quality tenants/ neighbors and maybe increase expected vacancy and late payments.

They do not take into account the revenue from the STR in valuation.Just because you are doing well with it doesn't mean it will work for the buyer.

If you control how they perform tasks, set their hours, or provide tools, they should likely be a W-2 employee, requiring you to withhold taxes and comply with payroll regulations.

I have provided them a letter from my broker about the amount that can be used.

if you have an LLC and both properties are under it, you just need 1 operating account.If both are under your personal, 1 bank account specifically for the rental is enough for operating.Security Deposits should always be a separate account altogether.

As you progress your bookkeeping business, you'll likely want to learn how to export statements from a variety of property management platforms, as investor books are housed in bank accounts, spreadsheets, and a variety of property management and accounting software!

Many people choose NOT to have this, because the administrator will then vet every investment you make to ensure you do not invalidate your IRA.Invalidating your IRA means that you've done a prohibited transaction and the entire account is then deemed as distributed to you.If you don't want checkbook control, then I recommend a plan administrator such as Equity Trust - www.trustetc.comIf you are sure that you're aware of all the rules around prohibited transactions and disqualified people (who you can and can't do business with), then a plan administrator like Sense Financial would be a good place to start talking.  

The $1,500 net cash flow you mentioned represents a tightened rental return that could provide consistent passive income.

I wanted to provide an update on the status of my situation.

What I've had clients do in the past is make an offer without a financing contingency where they tell the seller that they are getting a mortgage to close the deal, but also provide proof of assets to show that they can/will close by liquidating the assets if the loan gets declined.