Excess cash every month would essentially pay off more debt in the property and then use a 1031 exchange to move to a bigger property, all with the hope of avoiding the tax man.

Affordability and expandability - I only have 6 units (trying to avoid excessive fees and add-on costs)7.

Per BTU, electricity is just about the most expensive heating fuel you can buy, but a lot depends on the space being heated, and how the occupant uses the heating equipment.

Add in workers comp, GL, fuel for the truck and profit and I was in the 90's. 

Mold issues, excessive moisture in the attic, standing water... these can be hard issues to fix or even get a handle on how to fix sometimes.  

Try doing the math to see if you would cash flow(have excess money left over from rent after paying the mortgage and your other expenses from the house) on the property with the market value rent.You mentioned needing to do the roof and gutters in a few years. 

Carpet needs to be replaced more often with greater chances of getting stains or excess dirt build up.

That seems like the way to go, but it seems a bit excessive. 

This, coupled with a reduction on the price of the property given to us by the seller and the passage of about a year leaves us with needing only a few hundred thousand dollars when we finally closed a few months ago.Being left with over $2M on the loan, we've been making rather large payments to get rid of the amount in excess of what we need.

I have a duplex  that my two tenants share the utilities charges.  One tenant with the larger unit pays 2/3 of electric, gas and water.  The other tenant pays the 1/3,  During the summer, the electric bill was almost ...