I've heard horror stories that it's usually impossible due to the "burden placed on the municipality" but could really never understand what that burden was... most people living in those units wouldn't be using the school systems so aside from maybe an increased volume in emergency medical situations I can not understand that statement? 

My terms are identical to yours as far as the 1-year lease with 3 options to renew (for them), 3% yearly rent increase, etc.

Historically, the average days on market (DOM) for rental properties only increases by about 6 days during November and December.

This decision increased our budget from $15K to $45K, but it turned out to be a wise investment.

PS is revolutionary because of how it has simplified access to all of the various data points investors need to make a decision and because of this its extremely popular.You do not want to be using a popular lead source to increase deals because everyones chasing the same deals.And nothing will change with there data because there business model forces them to have to buy and license the data they get which means waiting for the county/databroker to send it to them which guarantees anyone using PS data will be behind the counties, only getting a fraction of the leads and getting those late leads the same time as everyone else.How do you get access to the leads first.

Unfortunately, this achievement did not result in the substantial increase in inquiries that I had anticipated.

Once the property is sold however we will be ok and our incomings are due to increase the following year.

I did most everything I was supposed to do, increase my income, decrease my living expenses, save cash, etc.. 

It's tempting early on to leverage as much as you can so you can do more deals and keep liquidity, but increased cashflow especially with PMI will make you sleep a lot better at night.

This decision increased our budget from $15K to $45K, but it turned out to be a wise investment.