I thought the same when we started with Vacasa, but those hiccups turned into a constant stream of issues that in the end cost me quite a lot of income.  

You can get Fannie and Freddie financing up to 10 properties at a reduced ltv, so why an LLC until you've exhausted that stream of money?

I would imagine that private investors would be more interested in the profitability of the individual investment where a banks interest is more aligned with the ability to repay the debt as agreed (often based on income streams not related to the investment).

My thoughts here would be to spend a little on customer appreciation to keep the revenue stream flowing.

From there it's simply a matter of buying enough duplexes and running them efficiently enough to develop a solid passive cash flow stream.

We signed a four year lease with tenants who did not have a good stream of income because they had just received a workman’s compensation payout.

I haven't stream lined my rent collection and after reading this I definitely have to!  

A 5 minute phone call by you could save the tenancy, if its a tenant/payment stream you'd like to keep.  

Look at like you are building another pension (income stream) on top of TSP, IRA, and military pension.  

This means, whether you rent or "sell", you'll likely be receiving a stream of monthly payments.