I am wondering how common lead pipes are (such as galvanized steel plumbing) for houses in Akron, especially houses built around 1945?

If you have more equity in some of your properties, you could do some cash out refi's and re-leverage, and possibly pay off 1 or more properties, freeing up another Conventional slot for you. 

Yes The idea is to refi them into an s corp or LLC in order to free up slots to continue to buy w traditional Fannie loans and clean up my portfolio.

I'd also suggest you get on Quick Books, pretty simple but having a little accounting will also help, just 4 hours of studying will make a big difference, what's known as "slotting accounts", correctly placing assets, liabilities and capital in the right place. :)

Thanks to great advice from here on BP, we were able to get the seller to install brand new water heaters and stainless steel appliances in every unit!

Some areas expect stainless steel appliances, granite counters, jetted tub, etc.; others, it's just an unnecessary expense as you're not going to get higher rents to cover the upgrades.

so when we did start doing something about it, it was already a full-blown issue.We've been trapping and sealing any holes in the walls with steel wool.

I like the hammered silver, which looks like stainless steel when you're done.http://www.rustoleum.com/CBGProduct.asp?

That can generally either be done with steel plates or Kevlar strips.

If you need a steel trunkline & ducts, the labor & materials costs jump very quickly.