A gradual increase may have been a more successful approach.  

Good, caring PM's exist that want owners to be successful while still making an honest dollar.I was with an attorney for a very large flat fee ($75.00 per month) PM firm one day and he was proud to convey that the average gross per door was $250 per month and the average tenant duration was 8 months. $75.00 per month is clearly total BS marketing and if I had an 8 month tenant duration I would be pissed as an owner.I take great pride in the service we provide with only 2 fee's to owners, a lease up fee and a % per month.

If you want to be a RE investor, you can't be successful by doing such low cash flow investments.

He believed he owed much of his success as a writer and researcher to being married to his wife, and in study after study he found that exactly the same is true for most people who managed to accumulate real money in the USA.Although The Millionaire Next Door is Stanley's most popular book, there are a lot of insights in the other books he wrote as well.

Understand your local market, the economic drivers behind its success or failure and make your decision. 

@Candido Trinidad I’ve had good success with US Bank.

What are some things you wish you had known when you started off in the industry? 

Congrats on getting started so young, you're on the path to success! 

Gave me the opportunity to see what success looked like, to learn from their successes and failures, to have in-person resources I could go to when questions or issues came up.So for me, having experience buying/owning a home combined with having local friends who can help are the two invaluable tools for what success I've experienced thus far.Hope that helps. 

People are successfully investing on both sides but once I know something I tend to stick with it.