It caused us a lot of financial hardship for a number of years.  

one clarification point, before you go the quit-claim route, review your title insurance to ensure the quit claim deed doesn't cause a break in title, thereby giving the title company a reason to deny a claim should a question on the chain of title arise during your ownership

Paul Flynn I recommend refinancing after the remodel and seasoning period and put the funds back into your HELOC.If you are not doing any remodel I recommend paying the HELOC off before your next investment.Not doing so may stretch you too thin and cause financial issues.

The high expense ratio are caused by many things including higher than usual property management fee, deferred maintenance , high water bills due to leaks, inefficient monthly advertising cost, inefficient property management software, neglected yearly service contracts, higher than usual insurance cost etc.

I've heard of this causing leaks in the roof if not done properly.  

The PM was very familiar with student renters, as this was in a very college-dense area and they managed most of the available rentals.Not totally sure what would cause future loan disbursements to fall through as long as she stays enrolled (I'm trying to remember if my loans had strings other than proof of enrollment provided by the university).

Trying to evenly split that between 2 tenants might cause some headaches.

By doing this your setting a bad example and will cause tenants to go around the pm.

Most people who have a spouse that is "not on board" have spouses that don't support them at all (meaning that they absolutely disagree with what you are doing), which causes a major conflict in their marriage.

Now he got a new tenant that is noisy/loud and caused issues with neighbors because of that....