I personally would only manage A type properties like my buddy here in Oregon that has 8 thousand doors all A and B  he charges 4% to manage the on site managers.And runs a very tight ship...But I bet he has less than 5% section 8 rest is market.

Also, I understand it's the holidays money can be tight with all potential money leaks (gifts, car repairs, heating bills, etc.).Has anyone had experience with switching over the metered water in Cook County?

Because I have a very tight niche in Chicago, they are all apples, and I know that a 3 BR house is 1200/mo rent and that a budget of 60k will generally leave 900/mo profit.  

If your DTI is tight that might be a reason to go the HML route though. 

However, they are incredibly tight on landlords for even the simplest things.

The banks tend to be very tight lipped about how they arrive at that number, but it seems to be about 65% of the total debt if there is little to no equity in the property.  

Leases tie YOUR hands much more tightly than the tenants. 

In our case the tenant moved out but the " support-Dogs" issue needs to be tight Pets are "occupants" too. !

You are correct that there is an inverse relationship between cash flow and appreciation, but how tightly correlated those two variables are depends on the market in question.For instance, in the commercial mutli-family market those two variables are strongly correlated because the primary buyers of multi-family are buying as an investment.

Long day:I'm mid thirties and in fairly reasonable shape, working out and maintaining a TIGHT chicken wing and craft beer diet.