Any ideas how I can help these houses run smooth?

This company is completely on the up and up and is NOT a guru run operation! 

As long as you are coming out of pocket at around the same you would be renting somewhere else then you are still getting ahead in life because your tenants are helping pay down the loan and build your equity.You should also run an analysis putting in what the market rate rent would be of you did not live there.

Would be happy to run a revenue projection on all of your properties.

Much easier to put your cash in a different investment vehicle with less risk.

At the time I was running on direct mail.

  :)   Or marry a full-time Realtor.Are you going to run a syndication or just give them money to invest?

In short don’t walk away, RUN. 

I can say I've moved to STL about 5 yrs ago and I was at the gym right by the McDonalds/ Lindell Blvd area you're talking about and I feel safe and have not run into any issues there.St Louis is street by street - it really depends.You'll be able to rent it fast there due to it's location, I'm certain.

Assuming adding a vent isn't unduly difficult, i.e. the dryer being in an interior room far from an exterior wall and/or no good access to run dryer pipe, I would put it in on my own.