I think  dividing up your assets among multiple LLCs is a good idea, but I think one LLC per property is excessive.

I've been involved with recent transactions where they trade in excess of 90 cents on the dollar. 

15K seems a bit.....excessive...But why San Antonio?

If it was just an application fee, that would be excessive, unfair, sleezy, but still not discrimination.

It has recently passed rent control legislation in excess of the state rent control.  

California charges a minimum tax of $800 a year per LLC, and more if you have gross receipts in excess of $250k.

In the Vallet areas and Los Angeles itself, the smallest of 3+2 homes come at price tags in excess of $200k and you certainly will not be getting $4k a month in rent for them.

If you can put your money into an account that earns 7% (give or take), and you can borrow against it, as if you had a credit line, then anything you do with the loan proceeds in excess of your loan cost will be gravy.

You could send a notice reminding them that although the machines are theirs the use should be limited to the occupants as you pay for these utilities (you might want to have this in the lease) and should you determine that use is excessive you will move to a different system such as coin op...

Now the excess you want to split.