Rental properties are a great way to quadruple your net worth using OPM over the course of ones career.My suggestion would be to keep funding as many 25% down loans as possible with your W2 income & aim towards a great retirement.

Has anyone tried using Kensington Research and Recovery services to lower your property taxes?

Additional upside can be found in the areas you mentioned - ease of access, economy of scale with service providers, time efficiency for management, possibly offering additional price points in your portfolio, ...Contiguous property is worth more to adjacent owners.

I have seen evictions thrown out of court for failure to follow legally prescribed methods of service.

The borrowers have the capacity to service the debt.

It had/has a city lien against it for lawn service, I leave it for the lease option tenant to pay me in the future.

The other caveat is that your credit score will determine the LTV as well as your ability to service the debt.

Has anyone exchanged services?

For the 18 months that I hired them for their services, they have charged me over $11,000 for maintenance, repairs, & upkeep of this home.

SFH: 53K purchase price and 850 rent, After taxes, Insurance, management, maintenance, trash and vacancy your looking at 483 a month cash flow. 10% cash on cash return.https://www.biggerpockets.com/calculators/shared/799536/883374da-28f1-4c6c-8db3-66a54da2a19c MFH: 95K offer with 45% down probably could raise rents a little to get 1400/month After all the expenses plus the debt service you're looking at 528 a month cash flow with 12% cash on cashhttps://www.biggerpockets.com/calculators/shared/799536/92455a43-f803-4687-a155-214530dc54d1MFH: 95K offer with 20% down drops you to 401 a month cash flow, but you only used 26K giving you 18% cash on cash return leaving you with 24K to go buy another place... https://www.biggerpockets.com/calculators/shared/799536/37e0d7d1-2628-4c90-9978-7af38635110dDepends a lot on your goals.