I’ve expressed this concern to my housing office and told my tenants they should advocate for themselves and tell the housing office they need to reconsider the policy.

I'm an advocate of 'Proactive Marketing' so I would definitely pick up the phone and make those calls, that's how you win in real estate.

The second property, if you take it up to 75%, would net you a little over 100K after you close, but your monthly payment would go from and it would blow your cash flow out of the water. 

Always keep in mind local laws, keep it professional and you can always soften the blow by showing comps, pointing to inflating expenses to keep the place well kept.

If it were mine I'd have the kitchen equipped with one of these below (as a minimum equip) instead of a built in cook top and wall oven.In my opinion electric is the way to go vs gas, because they cannot gas themselves to death accidentally by kinking the gas hose, nor can the blow the place to smithereens from a gas leak.If you fail to keep a working oven in your rental, your income may suffer--time on market and lower monthly rental amount.Just my 2 cents.

Interview some resources; as a buyer, you don't pay a commission so why not get a trusted advisor/advocate/someone with more knowledge (if you're ever the smartest person in the room, leave), and leave skid marks after closing on reaching your ROI goals.

Lots of people on this board hate this approach and advocate deciding on the profit you want to make, estimating all your expenses, and backing your offer out from all of that.

I don’t want to blow the exchange

The bank isn't going to let you blow their money.

You can do a cash-out refi on your house and blow the money gambling.