Maybe your PM lost a key employee or is cutting costs somewhere that used to pay dividends?

(5) Do I want to manage myself for higher returns or hand it off to a property manager who will take 25-40% of your gross revenue?

Institutional property management ecosystem includes at least 2 employees on-site, the manager in the office and a maintenance supervisor.

While car washes might produce a higher dollar-for-dollar profitability, storage seems to be a much better fit for what I want – less maintenance, less employees, less things that can go wrong in the day-to-day.Much of the feedback I've gotten on storage so far has pointed me to cold contact local mom & pop storage owners and inquire about purchasing their property.

In many cases, they are asking for double or triple what a RE agent would make on gross commission and they have no fiduciary responsibility to anyone.

My first computer was an Atari 800, if you want to call that a computer, but I actually developed a small software program for my office to enter daily service calls and print reports every day for each employee detailing their service calls for the day. 

Second, 75% of your gross rental income you receive from your properties "should" also count as your income so that ideally would help if you purchased properly.

I offered owners the traditional percentage of gross revenue (30%) AND what we referred to as a “guaranteed contact” which is what you are referring to.

Those seem like the best grossing properties.

The IRS is taking a more conservative approach and hiring more employees as @Nathan G. mentioned and you want to ensure you have all your ducks in a row + a team behind you to back you up if something comes into question.