You need to make sure your friend is willing and knows he might loose some or all of the investment. 

Most investors added 1 or all of these "Tools" over the past couple years. 

HOA prevent me from painting my house all black or all red.

I said "No Paypal" and all that because it removes an element of control from me and places it in the hands of the tenant, or so I thought.Thanks or all the replies!

If you can put the cash to use someplace else, and the refi payments would still fit the budget, I'd say fine.However, if you put 10% down, then brought it up to 20% (to buy out PMI), plus rehab expense, will the property appraise at a number you can pull out most or all of your cash, and still be at a monthly you can live with? 

The R values at the Tstud, they claim, are as high or higher than the wall cavities.

House hacking is nice because you're living there, can fix it up over time and you probably have the time to do most or all of the work yourself. 

Also, housing allowance is paying most or all of your mortgage right now I assume. 

so you can see both sides.. or should she talk to a investors who has a laundry list of questions .. and criteria.. ( I love that one) that is so unrealistic that its simply a waste of time.with my agents only a few were really good with investors.. they knew how to vette them and cut lose the time wasters.. but to say an industry is 95% bad is just a poor statement in my mind.. its just like saying all wholesalers are scum.. or all of anything are scums.. if you choose to work with investors buying low end SFR;s I get it more power to you.. but there is another world out there and for good agents that are investors agents know where the deals are and get fed off market deals.. they simply choose who they work with .. they don't need to take on newbie type buyers..

That means if I skip out or get hit by a truck, the house is yours and you stand half a shot of recovering some or all of your money.