This kind of investing is usually short sighted and focused only on immediate returns without taking into considering long term vision and investment.Excellent point about trying to put Class C tenants into Class A properties and vice versa.The first one will create lots of vacancy, deferred maintenance, loss of rental income, increase in evictions etc. 

With enough knowledge you can make a educated decision on which approach you take.My experience:I personally don't sign up for any program who take you aside during events and try to sell packages that is just blatant sales strategy.Once you sign up there is every attempt to make you sign for their programs for bookkeeping, registered agent, LLC or corp setup fee which have ridiculous even with platinum membership.Basic standard structure they suggest to take advantage of multiple deductions can be easily achieved by proper education or work with a good firm like https://wcginc.com  who is local to you.A umbrella C-crop to manage all other LLC properties and take advantage of many tax deductions that are not available with a llc, its also used to take losses up to 100K as startup expenses and dissolve the entity after few years.Few LLC entities for investing in Real Estate, etc preferably in Wyoming or Nevada ( you can find many companies online who can do this for $150 compared to anderson $1500-$3000) , they will claim they have a secret Operating agreement which is bogus.They certainly try to take advantage of tax loopholes and claim to be smart people, my view they are just taking advantage of numbers as per their own statements.

Credit is a factor as bad credit may limit options, or may have the lender require you to put 10 or 20 years of taxes and insurance into escrow. 

If I was to trade a $300k house for a $310k house that will cost me $10k and $347/month what amount should I ask for to make up for these losses?

Coghill they are trying to take care of several things:1) Approval to access credit reportsA video tour of my home office (required by the credit repository to show security, so access to office & computers is limited to avoid data theft)Credit checks on me and my partner (required by the credit repository to make sure you are not criminals looking to steal others' data)Copies of the deeds for every property we own (required by the credit repository to confirm you aren't just self-serving)A copy of my partner’s home lease and utility bills (required by the credit repository to prove his legal address, so they can pursue him criminally if he steals data)Business phone bills (required by the credit repository to prove an actual business)2) Approval to use banking ACH system to accept tenant payments and pay ownersBusiness phone bills (required by banking industry to prove business legitimacy)A signed letter from the bank verifying our accounts (to prove legitimate business banking accounts.

Your screening is limited to ONLY what RentRedi thinks should be part of the screening process, and rent payments...well, you will be reported to the IRS for the fees RentRedi charges..and RentRedi will not give you their W9 to write those off as an expense.

For one you can't limit usage.

Quote from @Simon Walker: Quote from @Andrew Syrios: Could you "split the difference" so to speak and go back to work for yourself but limit the number of clients you take on so you only need to work 20 or so hours a week?

Assuming you don't have a mortgage that requires a certain level of insurance, you can get a stop-loss policy covering all the properties. 

Though Buildium has its limitations, its financial tracking is quite robust.