It is the rare pet owning tenant that properly cleans the tops of door casings, inside heating vents, along the edges of baseboards, and a hundred other places where pet hair and dander gets caught, so you can generally count on needing extra cleaning. 4.

Since I will now be the host on Airbnb, does this count as materially participating and can I finally take the STR loophole? 

We are in agreement; I don't think you can count the Tenant Security Deposit of $8,450 towards Owners Equity.  

HOWEVER, my question is: given our goals/strategy, when analyzing returns for potential deals on the single-family rentals, along with a relatively low cash-on-cash return of roughly 1-2% should we allow ourselves to consider/count on 1) modest appreciation growth of only 3% year over year, 2) expense increases mirroring the current CPI of 3.5% and 3) low rental upside of only 1% (or even 0% given current market conditions).For example, if a deal gives a TOTAL return of roughly 15% year over year for 10 years but only starts out at about 1% cash flow via long-term rents, is this a good idea?

Building small units in low unit count is expensive.

It wouldn't change your loan amount because lenders are conservative.You could explore 2-4 unit properties because lenders will count 75% of the actual or potential rents (whichever is lower).

the $700 probably does not even cover maintenance/cap ex on 2 units at smaller unit count pricing.  5% vacancy/no payment is $230/month.  

If you capitalized those expenses to put it into service your basis is $415K (not counting depreciation).  

She devalued my old barn because it needs serious repairs and counted towards the usability of the house and she did the same for the pool that needs to be relined.  

That’s a big number for Terre Haute, in my opinionIf I wanted to be on the safe side, I’d do the sewer camera inspection.I wouldn’t count on getting much from the warranty.