Any and all advice given this change would be very valuable, and thanks for your input so far! 

These are all valuable tips I will apply on this journey. 

The experience of generating consistent cash flow from that rental property opened my eyes to the potential of leveraging real estate as a long-term wealth-building tool.

The upside is, even with a personal guarantee, the mortgage will not show on your personal credit report.Lastly, in both, while LLCs do offer a level of protection, which is certainly valuable, they also require more work.  

This is the kind of insight that makes this forum so valuable.

But if you need fast cash and have a valuable property, hard money loans could be a better fit.Have you had any experiences with either type of loan?

I think special tools are needed in this instance. 

BP has various tools to help you analyze your deals (rentals, flips, wholesale, etc). : https://www.biggerpockets.com/investment-calculators7.

MTR arbitrage is a useful tool to have in your tool chest, and like all tools, it has its uses along with its positives and negatives.MTR: Medium-term rental (usually between 1-12 months)Arbitrage: renting from another landlord and *with their permission* renting out that unit to a third party, hopefully at a profit.

You're spot on about security deposits being a practical tool to mitigate risk, especially with applicants who have checkered rental histories.