You bought in a bad area frankly, your going to have to muscle your way out and buy up the neighborhood and improve the region, or comes to terms with it.

Creating unnecessary tension at this point would only make things worse for you.

In an effort to relieve the tension he said he just had never worked with someone who was trying to do what I was trying to do.My question is this: is house hacking that unusual? 

On a landlording thread a guy advocates for illegal things, has no clue muscle isnt proper.

If there’s cracks/buckling tear it out and replace with a $300 three-piece snap together surround that’s an easy w/e project Assuming no closet, swap towel bar above the toilet with a basic over toilet cabinetReplace tension mount shower rod with a permanent rod above the tile and a nice transparent shower liner and basic/light green patterned shower curtain that matches the light green towels you put in there for showings. 

Flexing your landlord muscles won't work here. 

It is a tough thing all around to discern how to honor the Lord Most High when dealing with folks who seem content to run from ruinous misconduct to ruinous misconduct (like burying your head in the sand and letting an eviction happen).The poor will always be among us, yet we are called to love . . . specifically the alien, orphan, and widow.Those who don't work should not eat, yet we have all received abundantly more and better than we deserve (through Christ).Ours is indeed a faith of tensions and you do well to consider how to honor the different sides of the tension in your landlording.Keep it up!

Self development/education is a muscle.

You will be taking on more liability, and if you go bigger than 4 units you won't have the owner occupier financing available.Exercise your analyzing muscles by vetting some possible deals in different price points so you can see the difference in finances.

These are all relatively simple projects that don't involve much capitol; just a good planning session and lot of sweaty, dirty, muscle-building work.