We were told that the lender had already issued a preapproval and that the appraisal was unnecessary. 

Taking unnecessary steps with only 3 properties?

If you have a PM and they are allowing this and charging you for every little unnecessary repair, fire your PM. 

And if they're really a solid company, they will credit you back a lot of those unnecessary expenses!

As long as the politicians in DC insist on funding nonsense like $500k to study cocaine use in quails, $3 million to watch hamsters fight, or $48 billion on unnecessary or fraudulent medical claims, I won't bat an eyelash on giving them as little money as possible.

Work for two years, save religiously, build your credit, limit unnecessary debt, and house hack your first deal. 

Generally though, I break it down into the "five pillars" of protecting your assets.The first pillar is avoiding unnecessary and risky activities (don't drink and drive, insurance generally won’t cover your poor decisions) and take good care of your investments(maintain your property, etc) - these simple steps will help you prevent lawsuits before they even occur.

They are there to meet with me periodically, make me think bigger, encourage me to be more creative, and help me avoid unnecessary risk.With that being said, I don't really see a local mentor or an online mentor as a person who will be able to help you through "the logistics, planning, details" as you put it.Your team will help you with those things.

We only buy newer homes for this exact reason, and self manage because in my experience property managers approve loads of unnecessary expenses, and they pay their own maintenance teams (which is not an arm's length transaction and potentially a conflict of interest).  

That said, I suggest that you form the entity when you are ready to take capital, no need to do it sooner and pay the state unnecessary fees until you have to.