What about offering a quicker return of her deposit as an incentive to move earlier?

Having a CPA added to your team allows you to scale quicker.

If you have access to a great deal flow and are being held back by capital, then I would say you can grow that extra $15k at a quicker pace than the $150-80 = $70/mo net opportunity cost cash flow.You can objectively calculate this with opportunity cost calculations, rate of returns you're seeing, and inflation numbers.

Get a nice personal shower head that conserves water- the ones today are awesome and a personal shower head allows for a much quicker rinse compared to a stationary one.

Partnerships are a great way to scale into larger deals quicker. 

I think you could do better in your market (Raleigh) with a residential MF (duplex to quad) because it would have similar appreciation, have better cash flow, you would still be able to leverage all of the advantages of you being local (self manage if desired, able to know the market, be able to perform heroics if necessary).As for cash flow, I consistently argue that I value it less than value add and appreciation and this is why: Value add and appreciation allow me to extract my investment to leverage it quicker than cash flow would allow. 

., to up-skill a little quicker. 

I try to keep my leases on a spring/summer termination date as much as possible to ensure a deeper pool of applicants and quicker turnover.

To me it’s a good method to grow quicker instead of the steady CF on a monthly basis

You’ll have a really affordable mortgage allowing you to save and build your nest egg back up quicker.