So I'm growing my wealth both: inside of qualified accounts as well as personally.

As @Steve Vaughan pointed out, full costs for utilities, lawn upkeep, and snow removal are easily offloaded to the tenant, and if things go crazy on the small lawns the fixer landlord can step in with his equipment and save the day before the municipality gets on his back.It's an affordable way for people with ordinary incomes to get into REI.

ROE over 5 years is too low (I want 15%), you’re creating zero property value and your ROE in this example is being largely impacted by your 3% annual property value growth, that’s a bit high for me at this part of the cycle (2% would make me more comfortable) I would also make the assumption that your rents and expenses are growing in lock step. 

Such as, what is driving the economic growth - which businesses are moving to town, where are apts being build within the market, which part of town is growing the fastest.

What is your strategy for growing and what do you think I could do to grow larger/faster?

Personally, I want to learn the ins and outs and grow out of the position of being "on call."

I am here to learn and grow.

If we were to sell this property in 2019 we are under the impression that you will not owe capital gains on the profit if your taxable ordinary income is less than $77,200....?

Build up a 'business' relationship and grow from there. 

It becomes much easier, and much less risky as it grows, and there's nothing wrong with having the first 25-50k accumulate with disciplined saving.