If you are setting aside funds for capex, taxes, insurance, or other expenses that don't occur monthly, transfer those funds to Savings each month and hold them there until it's time to spend them.

I was a little surprised at the cost for the services which are $500/month.

You probably know the pros but the drawbacks tend to be that placing tenants takes longer (sometimes 3-4 months) due to paperwork, inspections, etc. and tenants tend to be rougher on your property.Happy to discuss in more depth if you'd like. 

If you listen to every episode of each for 6 months you'll know more about real estate investing than 99% of the population.

Once all beds are available could rent low end 6k a month (before expense) Might be able to do 850$.

My dilemma is this: I would ideally like to wait until I have emergency cash reserves to cover 6 months of mortgage payments for all 3 properties.

The other 1% are constantly reviewed by licensed Realtors, large wholesalers spending $20,000 monthly for marketing, numerous platforms and services selling leads, fix n flippers, syndicators, investment funds,  and “opportunistic” buyers such as myself with millions of dollars in cash to close any discounted deal in less than 48 hours, if need be.  

However, my expenses are going up $120-$150/month each year on some of my properties.

Redfin showed 2.35% month over month Jan to feb and feb to march data is not released yet.