I won't ever close on another OOS property without walking it first but that involves paying for lots of flights and hotel/rental car costs if flying out there to make an offers but the $1500 to $3000 would be worth the cost to me to save on future headaches. 

Nonetheless, I agree... with your mortgage rate being so low, it seems like it makes sense to access the equity via other methods beyond refinancing. 

Short-term rentals (STRs) offer a way around these limitations by being considered active income if you meet certain material participation requirements, such as working more than 500 hours or 100 hours, surpassing anyone else involved.

And treat this as 1/5th space as a rental.Or down the road, would it be better to have the entire property (home & garage/room) rented out to everyone involved and the property become an investment property. 

There a few other advantages of this email method. 

They do offer linked accounts, so maybe I'll go with a 3rd party bank that I can trust.I appreciate this concern, as we’re also looking to move to a bank that allows for multiple account to use David Richter’s Profit First method.

It's called the Asset Island method, long used by HNW persons to great effect. 

It involves investing in strong growth markets, diversifying, and buying distressed properties.

I LOVE the house hacking method and I think it is one of the best ways to get started in real estate investing.

This year they’re real estate syndicators; three years hence they’re running and selling oil drilling participations, after that they’re involved in fin tech.