I'd keep the rental and by no means refinance it to take cash out. 

I hope I laid this out in an understandable way but I say all of that to say is it worth trying to find a mentor whose already well versed in GC who’d be willing to coach me in my home build.

It's worth doing the call with them because that's free.

It may not be worth using an LLC on your first one.As for the calculations, just put the numbers in a spreadsheet and figure out which option costs you more.

Overall closing out 10 months with Pricelabs I think it is worth it, but I still spend about the same amount of time adjusting rates everyday (10 to 15 minutes for 9 properties).

The best strategy I seem to have deployed so far was to contact all my current tenants and let them know I’d give them a cash referral fee of $250 for anyone they recommend to me that goes through the vetting process and successfully moves in.

Purchase price: $932,500 Cash invested: $450,000 20-unit building converting from LTR to fully furnished MTR/STR.

Since franchising takes some investment, I'm wondering if it's worth the investment or if doing a flip on my own to get experience is better.

Quote from @Bob Schulte: I’ve seen plenty of private money lending stories go south, and it’s definitely a topic worth discussing.

-Perhaps the cash flow "lining your pockets" continues for a few years.