Its not unusual that your insurance premium jumped, but I’m wondering if the jump was so drastic only because you switched to a landlord policy, or if its because your insurance policy is renewing and taking into account increased costs of labor and materials.

Some type of renovation will likely be required to generate any cash flow in that area, but to be honest; it might still be slim unless it's a heavy renovation.That area is like anything along the NW blue line corridor...great for house hacking, but really tough to make the numbers work on a straight investment deal.You might be better off trying to find something off-market if you are locked into finding a deal in that area.

That, a few podcasts, a few select books, and a couple of subscriptions choke full of info material (less than 100$/month), maybe a couple mentorship programs (for less than 2K/year), and a lot of action on your part and you'll be a lot better than paying $$K for "gurus".To rephrase, do you have more money than you know what to do with or an urgent need to get it to work for you, together with a lot of time on your hands ready to take massive action?

Summer is also tough to rent out.

I believe my wife and I pass all the test under REPS and material participation.

I mean material as recently as late 2022 was totally off-base-- the real estate rookie bootcamp, you had porfer Morby on here, the Carl twins that promote STR as recession proof, the list goes on.

Plus now that I'm established and have a portfolio, I pay a lot into the local economy by hiring contractors, buying materials, etc.

I'm also open to suggestions on other (post covid hopefully) reading material, podcasts and resources. 

Materials won’t be that much a couple hundred maybe.  

It was a tough sale.