All you need is a single place to track tenant information, payment history, maintenance, and other things.

Long term goals in mind that I need a track record and capital for! 

We use a third party servicer to do all of this - much easier and when starting just tracked payments in wuickbooks as servicer tracked everything else 

What property management software or tools would you recommend for tracking rent payments, leases, and maintenance requests?

Unlike some buyers, I ALWAYS go look at the properties before the sale and discovered that the vacant lot had an active railroad track on it and therefore was unbuildable, and would remain unbuildable until the railroad removed their track. 

Being clear about what you want to do from the start not only helps you stay on track, but it also makes it easier to spot problems or delays before they happen.I totally agree that talking to people is important.

My belief is that if you can find a good enough deal, you can make it work - even with limited track record.

I've seen a lot of this lately where GPs are offering outside investors pref equity to effectively "save" the project from foreclosure.

Legal violations and penalities(fines) even if you have accounting software to track the difference. 

The Plus subscription would allow you to keep track of each property/project and produce reports for them individually in addition to keeping track of the entire business as a whole.