Quote from @Tom Hall: My mortgage rate is very high  and I would like to pay some of it off, so that my monthly payments would go down a bit, I dont know if it is financial smart to do it or not?

If you pay the loan off before selling or do a refi and have $1 of equity, it won’t affect your taxable gain. 2) if you stay 2 years you’ll have 14 years of personal use out of 22 years so 63.6% of the gain cane be exempted, up to $500k.

The STR model is a different model and where it is at in it's business cycle, the average STR owner is not doing well.

Based on a quick answer from Perplexity it seems like there would be no issue with you buying the home and collecting passive income, but you may not be allowed to manage it yourself since that is considered active work.

It will familiarize you with the basic terminology and benefits.

Did you do this deal or was it one of your clients? 

Redlining IMO would only be an issue if @Jimmy O'Connor said to stay away or refuse to do business somewhere; he did not do that, he just pointed out property characteristics.

If they do a great job, $100 is a great deal. 

With that being said I do think there are some great potential calculators that might be better while on your phone on the go.

Are they going to be able to buy your proudly done flip.3) If you misjudge the market, do you know when to dump it.4) Can you put a spreadsheet together on your purchase costs, carrying costs, rehab costs, closing costs, selling costs, tax costs, contractors that don't show and delay your project etc. etc. etc.5) Is the return worth the risk.