Should I sell the investments (pretend we're in a non-recession normal stock market environment), and payoff the rental?

Ensure you have an itemized invoice from the cleaner, which can help justify the deduction.Reasonable Deductions: Long-term tenants often leave normal wear and tear, so I recommend being lenient on minor issues.

This implies that if I had confidence of better than normal appreciation or ways to add value, I would purchase a negative cash flow property.  

"I'm at the point where I've gotten out THE lease and it doesn't have anything about locksmith, however the maintenance, repairs section states, " All normal repairs necessary to maintain premises in a tenantable condition shall be done by or under the direction of the landlord, and at the Landlord's expense, except those caused by negligence or acts of the Tenant, which repairs shall be made at the sole coast of the Tenant. 

It is very normal to buy a home with other debt, especially at your income level.

It just depends what your buy-box is... but we normally build to an 8-9% cap rate on the sale side.

Does the law require an agent/principal to do something over and above what you'd normally do if you were only principal?  

I've done a few deals where the bank offered purchase + rehab funding up to 75% ARV, and then it converts automatically to a normal mortgage loan at the end of the rehab. 

Meanwhile, the sellers who are most likely to offer creative financing are normally the owners of  real estate that have issues.....condition.....low barrier/over supply market......or perhaps pricing issue, and one of these factors is why its not marketable in a arms length transaction and why creative financing would be accepted.

So I require skin in the game (average is 5% to 15%) to offset this.