Plus we had the money to pay one off if it got called and we did have a few get called ..

Vendors who partner with Costco pay for market exposure and referrals, which often adds to the final cost passed on to the customer.

If you tell the IRS it is an expense, it is no longer income.W2 income does not use a 2 year average for your base pay! 

Look at what high interest credit cards you can get rid of, pay down, or move to zero interest promotion cards for say 15 months etc.

A tip is voluntary, so your tenant could agree up front, then refuse to pay.

Perhaps we "buy" the house from them for the $328K balance to satisfy the lender and don't need a large down payment and then have a separate contract with them to pay $x per month until we've paid the full $172K amount.

Subtract $2300 for one unit and they're paying $1400+expenses to live in a $2300 month apartment and area.

You can have your tenant pay through there.

However it is worth it to pay a little bit more money for a mortgage now, so I can start building equity, assets, and future cash flow.Hey @Kody Glithero, welcome to the BP Forum and it's so great to hear you're looking to start your real estate journey as such a young age!

We had to move fast and initially decided to sell it, the relator who was helping us somehow convinced us we should make it a rental property......... and let her be our tenant (insert face palm here) so since we had no real estate experience and we were already moved away, we agreed.