Without that you really have no idea what the tenant is like, so its a big gamble. 

Yes been thinking a while about what to do after selling property:1. just pay the tax and paying off debt as you said2. 1031 DST with lower return "slightly higher risk" investment3. or QoZ funds where it's the riskiest investment/10 year money out with the investment into developmental phase/cycle location (hence lot of gambling) at the worst of time.It's win-win-win situation for uncle Sam :)

A friend of mine who runs a large property management company likes them a lot and would have chosen them over AppFolio if he was starting his company today.

How about stock market or Vegas gambling, any language on that?

It also seems like there are 6+ month waiting lists to get into modern, resort style apartments around here so tenants may be out of luck if they take a gamble leaving, which i think is playing in us (Landlord's favor) as of now as they don't have as much bargaining power.

Arguably, more properties well chosen and cash flowing are safer than having one cash flowing property.

You need to have an expert work with you in your chosen market.

Not realizing that while these people may not have "Chosen" to be poor, they did look at all their housing options and decided the dump, for $300, was either a) all they could afford or b) they didn't want to spend more for something nicer for their own reasons.    

I have always thought that was a gamble not worth taking, and it is even more risky in this time of rising interest rates. 

If you were in their shoes, wouldn't you wish you'd have chosen a floating rate loan and saved $2 million?