I don't care if they bring in a couple kids, just wasn't sure how to handle it. 

Granted that's apples and oranges, because the new homes are larger and all in the suburbs, but as long as you can buy an existing home for half the price per square foot than a new construction home I would be careful with expecting peak appreciation.

Any time you use a HELOC, you only want to use 50 percent of the available equity or less so if you can do that over time carefully, it will work.

In the next 1-5 years you could have some serious cashflow - why would you care about the associated taxes?

Donate the Property: Donating the property to a qualified charitable organization can provide you with a charitable deduction equal to the property’s fair market value and eliminate capital gains taxes.Implementing these strategies requires careful planning and consideration of your specific financial situation.

A few ideas:I would start by asking the tenants if they really care about the utility costs since Landlord is supplying the appliances.

Taking care of someone's asset is a responsibility that you should not take lightly. 

Yes, it's easy to ask you these questions after the fact, but you won't succeed unless you carefully review your mistakes and learn from them.Not sure I agree with your statement, "RTR knew they’d messed up".

In my experience, if you take care of the tenant you will likely see that average to be true.  

@Alex ThomsenThat is Way too much and also in North Carolina there is some weird due diligence fee that is not refundable so be careful.