If you're wondering if rates are too low, raise them a hair in advertising and see if your number of inquiries drop.

Leasing is a specialized skill—PMs deal with this daily, making them far better equipped to handle applications, verify income, conduct background checks, and evaluate a tenant’s overall suitability.Protecting Your Investment:The cost of a bad tenant can be far greater than the cost of hiring a professional.

Pricing - If you cannot check your competitions price and adjust yours daily you may want pricing software (PriceLabs probably best for single listing owners/operators). 

It changes daily. 

Have enough that after you buy the property you still have 6 months of expenses in reserves that you can use for daily living.

While I have managers handling the daily operations, I still oversee everything remotely.

I mess up daily and my spelling sucks.

@John Matthew Johnston 80% of the time, it's a thankless job:(You're never fast enough for complaining tenants, nor fast enough or cheap enough for owners.To have any chance of success, you have to be extremely organized, or every day starts with your hair on fire!

HOA covers twice daily valet trash too. 

In fill lots with no hair on them 9 to 12 months start to finish My 90 lot project about 5 years from dirt to completion.