I would agree with Chris, I would not use debt to cover all costs and then hope to get a good pop on the sale to cover all the debt, payments and still have some in the end to make a profit to do it again.

A good rule of thumb is to keep 3-6 months of operating expenses in your rental account as a cushion.Once you’ve got that covered, you can start investing the excess.

I've argued for this and the powers-that-be do have a good argument that they are still active just in other ways, how to cover labor and actions during that, etc..

Our goal has always been to bring in enough cash flow to cover ALL of our living expenses. 

The above also doesn't cover the dozen times I asked via email and phone for more regular communication.

I know taxes and insurance have gone up a lot in that time so I understand that problem but the solid rent increases in that time have been able to cover most of that (at least for me it has worked out).

If the rent payment covers your mortgage and you have a good tenant, why would you get rid of them to take on the expense of unit turnover, because you will have to do one, and the 5% vacancy loss just to increase your rent $150 per month?

Outside of raising money from others or seller financing, I am looking to see if there are private or other lending options that could cover 10-20% of a downpayment on these loans with a shorter loan term of say 5 years.

You'll have proportionally less upside and thus less room to cover errors and overruns on a project with a new team you'll be far away from. 

Your tenant stayed somewhere with bed bugs and brought them back in their clothes/luggage, or they bought used furniture that already had bed bugs.