Keep that same mentality and continue to save aggressively!

Up until recently I had been doing my own book keeping for both which was a terrible idea haha; I have gotten extensions on my taxes for the past 5 years because i manually itemized all expenses I did not keep up with throughout the year on EXCEL.

I would also recommend doing a walkthrough video so your buyers can understand the layout and make you a soft offer before seeing it.There are many more things that would facilitate the sales process on the acquisition side, but since you are starting out, keep it simple and do not make an offer on-site since you said you are new and might not know how to run the numbers.

If you think that the appreciation will be more than your tax increases or your reduced cash flow, maybe lean towards keeping the properties especially the one with the 3.865% rate. 

Nice, keep it up!

I want to keep reserves, but not 6 months for every house.  

Keep that in mind, these people have been conditioned to use there head as a neck weight.

Do what you can to keep the cost of student loans down. 

Based on what I have experienced investing here locally I normally advice people keeping the house as a rental if possible!

They only keep payment history for 90 days (depending on banking partner).