Your best bet is to keep liquid cash and avoid PMI.

Unfortunately, people in the trades are often good at their trade but poor at managing their business.

I bet the city would squeeze it in this year to get some $.

If you kept the property, and accumulated the CF/yr, it would take you 25 years to get that same equity that's sitting, frozen in your property.Also, if you cashed out and used that same equity as a DP on different RE, at 20% DP, that equity would buy you $2M in PV, not just $700k,...and, I'd be willing to bet, you could find new RE that would have a yearly CF well over $20k/year.On top of that (remembering my initial statement above), any appreciation applied would be applied to $2M, not just $700k. 

.- nationally, the highest rent to value ratios are in areas with poor rent growth and poor appreciation.  

It tries to do too many things and poorly at that. 

Looks like biting the bullet and getting an engineer may be my best bet.

I’m hoping to find more success in Phoenix, but as you stated, the old fashioned way may be my best bet.

To avoid going through the same poor experience, keep reading.Even if someone gives you a referral here, do NOT make the mistake of assuming that the PMC will meet your expectations, just because they met the expectations of the referral source.In our experience, the #1 mistake owners make when selecting a Property Management Company (PMC) is ASSUMING instead of CONFIRMING.It's often a case of not doing enough research, as they don't know what they don't know!

Also your plans may change during the next 3-4 years while you’re in school so sitting tight and building your nest egg may be the best bet until you graduate.