And you can definitely pay off your home faster if you focus on running all of your expenses through it and watch your expenses. 

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! 

How does anyone expect people in a place with an average income of 25K a year to pay an average of $1400/mo rent? 

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.

I agreed to pay for the renovation with no interest credit cards.

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

It was like paying for multiple Master's degrees to get our "real world" experience.  

Investment Info:

Single-family residence fix & flip investment.

Purchase price: $58,500

Cash invested: $55,000

Sale price: $155,000

Contributors:
Peter Vekselman

Partner Drive...

It is also possible that either the folks in charge of the station, or the prosecutor have set a policy of not wanting to pursue non violent crimes, or even not paying attention to crimes against folks who are not local residents. 

Now, you need to figure out how to find deals and pay for them.