Fix it.We eliminate as much landscaping as possible: we take out flower beds and most decorative features, ideally, lawn mowing is the only job tenants have to do, because we know that's all we can expect from most.

I think THIS can be better than a 1031 exchange because the seller will start off with a fresh depreciation schedule in the new property.

Nice job!  

I drop them and use a competent local RE agent, who did a great job.   

Admittedly, I am not one that typically finds paid mentorship very valuable, but I also respect that my degree is in business with a focus on real estate, and my first job out of college was in real estate (so it is a little hard for me to take my 20 yrs of knowledge and rewind it to try to view mentors from a completely fresh lens).A couple points: I view mentors, especially these expensive ones as a catch-22. 

If you haven’t already, I’d scope out the municipalities around town.. from what I read in The Economist, the Phoenix metropo area continues to rank high for job growth, which usually bodes well for new builds.

It's one of the hottest markets in the US right now with so much population growth, job growth, and companies moving/developing here (26B Intel headquarters being built here, 68K+ enrollment in Ohio State University, Amazon, FB, Google, Honda, Nationwide, Anduril, etc.).

Also, focus on 2 years of job/income stability.Class D Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, all cashflow with little, maybe even negative, relative rent & value appreciationVacancy Est: 20%+ should be used to cover nonpayment, evictions & damages.Tenant Pool: majority will have FICO scores under 560 (almost 30% probability of default), little to no good tradelines, lots of collections & chargeoffs, recent evictions.

Schedule a meeting with your CPA and tell them all about your goals for the year.

My two cents: get a job and HUSTLE right out of school and create some income and save up some capital.