Also, don't forget that there is an overall up and down cycle of real estate in a given year.Starting in 2013 there has been a large uptick in real estate so you can expect prices to increase.

On the flip side, rental prices are down 8-15% from a year ago.And the cycle continues ...

Getting better tenants, and getting them much FASTER would have put us in a better spot in the market cycle to start the refi.

Nice work noticing cycle trends most new investors experience.

Who’s to say the market cycle wouldn’t have already ran its course a few times by then.

There just isn't enough deal flow with those at this point in the cycle. 

Some good suggestions already here.Definitely ask about properties/deals they have taken full cycle (bought, rehabbed, rented, sold, refi’d, etc) based on their business plan.

We used to look at 7 year cycles until the government tried to push Homeownership rates up which buoyed the market and made crashes much worse.

Figure 3: The Economic cycle and where the United States is (my belief).

The only draw back is that if the city raises any of those rates in the middle of your lease cycle you will have to wait for the leases to expire to raise the amount to recoup the higher fees.Finally, you could implement a RUBS program that would be separate from the lease and could recoup almost all of your utility costs.