There's many independent banks and credit unions in my area who no longer even write mortgages, they just refer their clients to big banks.

Credit/debt isn't really a huge issue, it's more our comfort level.

Getting your personal life on track should be a priority way ahead of buying a property.You have the cart before the horse at this point in time..

Something that also does online applications and credit checks etc?

If you want to do more prep work, another BP user has offered House Flipping Spreadsheet which is one of the most straightforward and affordable estimators I've seen.But give your buyers some credit. 

Then I would request to be placed on the agenda and I would attend the next board meeting (hopefully with other landlord / owners) and formally request that they waive the record keeping fee or publicly offer to volunteer as a "landlord" committee to keep track of the info for them for free.

I play along when cold called by the refi call center guys, probably get my credit run once every 3 months while playing along.

The lender tracks this information because they want to ensure that their underlying security is insured and they will be informed when you change the named insured.

So I am the right tracks. 

I live in Ohio and Ohio does not track owners on the SOS website.