@Ashley Kehr I use a combination of Apartments.com for rent collection, RentSpree for tenant and background screening, and Stessa for accounting.

Or there can be being a GP in a syndication, where you have, effectively, no money down: source $3mm deal, commit $50k with your LPs, collect 3% acq fee ($90k) without ever funding your $50k... you pocket $40k, and have a $50k interest in the deal. 

Often he has difficulty collecting the tenants share of the rent.

Highly recommend (I require) collecting first month's rent prior to handing over keys.

If it would concentrate on rent collection only and do it well, it might be okay.

That will be tough to use your HELOCs together to get another loan because of your collective DTI so it will depend on that.

PM's will keep all late fees, they hold the security deposits so they collect all the interest on security deposits. 

@Adam BartomeoAny recommendations for the collection agency?

Also, focus on 2 years of job/income stability.Class D Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, all cashflow with little, maybe even negative, relative rent & value appreciationVacancy Est: 20%+ should be used to cover nonpayment, evictions & damages.Tenant Pool: majority will have FICO scores under 560 (almost 30% probability of default), little to no good tradelines, lots of collections & chargeoffs, recent evictions.

Attorney’s Fees; Collection Related Costs; Jury Waiver.