Though your leverage is reasonable at 70%, your words indicate that your cash flow is not quite strong enough to comfortably endure decreases in rent.  

I am sure that Auction.com is getting paid for their service and that is why they add them to their marketing @Wayne Brooks, it is just another stream of revenue for auction.com leveraging the existing platform that they have already built.I have also seen houses lately hit auction.com barely two months past the sheriff sale (now as REOs), but they are pre mls and auction.com does not charge a buyers fee (no co-broker involved), I have bid on a number of those (usually tracked by me from the pre foreclosure stage), but never overpay so someone always outbids me lately on these open platform auction sites.Good Luck to you!!!

My question: should I put a large sum of cash in my LLC, then try to get a loan for the first rental that way (I'm a fan of leveraging vs. cash)? 

Say you just bought a 75 unit for 1.5M with 80% leverage (300k down) and then you leverage the LOC to rehab the property for 900k and keep another 350k on the side in case something comes up.

They don't care about leveraging or optimizing their returns.

I don't by any means think this is anything new but wanted to share for those that may have forgot about leverage equity in an owned property to access capital for the next investment.  

it depends on what you want from your investments. if you want to increase your monthly income, i would leverage with debt and acquire more properties.  

Are you more interested in owning properties free and clear or are you looking to build up your portfolio and leverage yourself?  

In theory you can get better returns if you leverage as much as possible but that also adds risk. 

This would consolidate it all into one, so I wouldn't feel so over leveraged, but most importantly, free up my line of credit for more potential property purchases.