I am also planning on using a property manager as I have an 8 - 5 full time job.

It was a huge investment, but it cut the electricity cost by the full 2K per/mo all summer.

You might make less, but you cut a lot of costs, make the 1031 exchange easy and maybe worthwhile. 

There were several mistakes made on my tax returns that I pointed out, which required going back and forth with their tax preparers, and asking repeatedly to cut to the chase and have a phone call.

A HELOC comes with a variable interest rate and all signs are pointing to no further Fed rate cuts in 2025 - and there may even be rate increases.- So, you may want to consider locking in an interest rate via a 2nd mortgage.Do you have reserves for unexpected expenses?

Great job! 

We want to grow our real estate business to be able to quit our jobs.

I am left feeling that working with them was a wasted investment and decided to cut my losses and move on. 

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.

For example Intel headquarters, Google, FB, Amazon, Nationwide, Honda, (recently Anduril announced another 4k jobs to Columbus).