Not too many houses to choose from in my local county auction. 

Given the lease is up in Jan you can make your stand there if you choose to. 

We're choosing between Buildium, Rentec, Appfolio, RentRedi & Yardi.

I know that once we choose a company, we won't be working with their salespeople.

Are there any reputable banks that offer 40 year terms and what, if any, is the negative with this strategy?

Start building your reputation and the list will build itself.

You have to just network in real life and in forums and figure out who is real, but on your end, you have to build a reputation for delivering quality opportunities which is hard to do at 19.

I would listen to the BP Podcast with Thach Nguyen on how he knocked on one hundred doors a day , five days a week for ten years and that got him one million USD per year from that ACTIVITY.Make sure you dont miss the part where he says one home seller let loose a dog on him and he had to get attention at the hospital from the bite.I would also pay attention to the Tom Hopkins Champion formula to embrace rejection on pages 110-125 in his book Mastering the Art of the Sale.Especially the part where he says , you are paid for each rejection you getThen TAKE ACTION, make the calls, follow up leads, ask for referrals, make offers, buy properties, choose your exit strategy etcin making calls i would attempt to incorporate "negative phrasing" as taught by Steve Trang, to locate buyers, sellers, private money lenders.I would also set a saving rate as taught by Anthony Robbins from book Money, master the game, becoming of an investor, taking advantage of the power of compounding I would also keep in mind the 10000hour rule from Malcom Gladwell's book, Outliers reminding myself that attaining world class takes commitment

I'm not an expert yet, but my understanding is that you can either shovel the driveway/cut grass yourself, hire someone to do it, or have the tenants do it themselves (perhaps give them a slight discount on rent if they choose that option).

In a lot of ways you just try a bunch of different ones until you find one that you like.That said, if you are always welcome to reach out and I will provide you an insights I can about my choose real estate niche.Regards,John