just don't do a lease. as others have mentioned, this forces the buyer of the property to take over the lease (if its even allowed/ they qualify) and it certainly does make the property a little tougher to sell. i'm also doing a house hack, and here in CA, its made a world of difference for me. the bulk of our energy usage is in the summer when we want to run the a/c. my bill stays a constant $228/mo (i pocketed the tax credit and simply financed the panels after that grace period). instead of getting an $800 bill in the summer months, we run the a/c at a constant temperature 24/7 on auto, stay comfortable, and i typically get a little bit coming back at the end of the year. don't expect to pocket this "little bit back" by being conservative with your useage, it sort of is a use-it-or-lose-it situation... i think i got $54 back this year.

This reserve amount represents roughly 2–3 years of projected repair costs, which might be a conservative approach, but it gives us a buffer for unexpected, high cost repairs when they pop up.With a larger portfolio, the reserve pool wouldn’t need to grow proportionally, as funds and repairs can be balanced across properties, allowing costs to offset each other over time.

I'm conservative in nature, but am looking for the push to jump in at some point.

I've tried to be conservative in my assumptions and based on the best available comps have valued the properties using the 1% rule for this analysis.

Not knowing much about your overall finances, I would say having a conservative amount of debt on the property is a good thing.  

How are they underwriting the deal and what assumptions are they using and are they conservative or aggressive?

I'd never go to Detroit unless I'm going to Canada, nothing against the folks up there, but I doubt if they'd come here too, meaning I wouldn't buy there either.I'm probably the most conservative of the bunch here, I don't mind taking whatever so long as I know what I'm getting.

make sure you do conservative underwriting.  

@Caleb Brown Thank you for commenting and yeah I was definitely planning on trying to be more conservative with my spending as part of getting my finances back on track as I mentioned.

A lender will use market data, conservative comps, and always side on the fence of "what if" - as in, what if they have to default you and take over the property?