This includes increasing your income through a better job, and attending local real estate investment groups where you will circulate with other like-minded individuals.  

There's no way to know which is "better" because the answer is "it depends".

This produces a Debt to Income Ratio (DTI)...the lower the better.

This also leads owners to ASSUME simpler is better when it comes to management contracts.

But I wonder if it would be better for me to sell it and reinvest the $100k into other properties through a 1031 exchange.

They do have zero complaints on the Better Business Bureau.The only thing that bothers me- which I suppose it’s minor- is this: I emailed Ray a link from his own website of the property I went and saw and am interested in, and he emailed me back the exact same link, saying that all the info regarding that property is on there.

I suggest you just have your PM do a better job of screening.

--Why wouldn't you use something better than this shotgun approach to find a great PMC to take care of your clients?

You would be better off having two properties at 50% leverage than one at 0%.3) You lose out on appreciation benefits by having one property unleveraged when you could have four properties at 75% leveraged4) Unleveraged properties are a target for ambulance-chasing lawyers and also now fraud. 

Dave Ramsey's opinions are better suited for the masses than real estate investors and entrepreneurs.