A more scientic way is to measure the deflection of the wall - how much is it bowing.

My only beef is that I wasn't able to get started at a younger age and really understand the power of real estate or compound interest. 

If you had two loans with the same rate and term, then you could calculate it as though it were one loan with the same rate and number of compounding periods.

Use 3% rent growth compounded annually for 10 years rents grow to $1344.

I would keep on multiplying the cash while you can and invest long term in cash-flowing assets later once you have enough to buy a much larger property or just keep compounding the cash which is what I do.

The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy was a big influence.

The "divots"  have to be filled with compound, sanded, primed and repainted. 

I really wish I had know what I know now at your age, I would have loved to have started earlier and begun that compounding process at an earlier age (which makes a huge difference in long-term wealth building).

Got the drywall hung up there. currently in the process of adding joint compound/tape and then texturing before paint.

According to Case-Shiller data (https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LXXRSA), Los Angeles home prices have had a compound growth rate of just under 5% since 1987 (median price of $60K to median price of about $280K in 32 years).That's about the same as the increase in median home prices across the entire US in that same time period (https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MSPUS).So, if appreciation is about the same over time, but cash flow is less, what models are you using to determine that the ROI in LA would far exceed that of other places in the US given the likely greater cash flow in other areas?