Instead of my home, I could start paying down the lowest mortgage balance on one of my rentals and then when paid off, use that extra cash to pay off the second, then third, etc.Whether I pay off one of my rentals or my house, the extra cash would go towards paying off the other properties.

(images from the biggerpocket's rental property calculator analysis are attached)I am from Portugal, so let's forget about the economics and market conditions in play here.

I've considered real estate, going back to school for accounting, and economics.

Under this tab I selected unpaid balance amount.

I think part of the offense they took may also have been from the fact that they had invested a fair bit of time in working with me, and I had then turned around and not hired them after seeming to be very interested (which I genuinely was -- but I also wanted to make sure I was getting the very best balance between price and quality that I could).I don't have a lot of experience dealing with contractors, so I'm honestly wondering if I committed a big faux pas, or if Company B is just unprofessional.

It would not make sense for her to take additional risk late in life if she already has cash flow and she is happy with life as it is.With the current balance on the loan, I would assume that her monthly payments are very low. 

Of course their security deposit will go toward the full amount they own me and usually the balance is just under the judgement amount.  

Ask them if they have interest only payments or if a minimum amount of the balance needs to be paid monthly.

Housing in high demand areas of our metro area will make you a lot of money based on the simple economic forces of supply and demand.

(cash out re-fi doesn't look economical with current rates).