Their layouts can be not appealing at times.

So, now that you got your losses and failures done - and congratulations by the way because I can't think it could go any more wrong - now you can start over.So yes, get those properties sold and do this right this time.

It's basically built on top of WordPress core and they made it simple and easy to navigate.Where in wordpress, you have to get some plugins (some are also monthly paid) to achieve the same kind of functionality.SEO is not just about having a good hosting/platform and features, it's about utilizing the features in a way so your brand has visibility and people that come into your website gets proper value of their time spent.Here's a table comparison for you that I wrote earlierNow whether you have a carrot or a wordpress site, for SEO, you will need:- Website Credibility (Personalisation)- On Page SEO (Keywords, Titles, Meta Tags, Description, Image ALT Tags & Optimization etc)- Social Media Presence (Regular Posts/Videos and Engaging with your audience)- Monthly Content Publishing (Regular Blogs & Location Pages)- Monthly OFF Page SEO (Citations, Backlinks)Now if you consider the cost, end of the day it's quite same for both the platforms.But if you are starting fresh, I see no point of having their 180$ plan, you can continue with 89$/month plan from carrot and assign someone in your team to put regular blog posts and update the location pages.Or if you want to use WordPress and get someone setup the website and do regular content updates for you, then It can take 3-6 months to start seeing visible growth in organic traffic if all the things mentioned above are taken care of.

Renovation and improvement costs are typically capitalized and depreciated over time, but a cost segregation study can accelerate deductions, increasing your ability to offset income.

Again, I used my parents but this time only as lenders of part of the money for the down payment.

Those should not need attention (in a perfect world) for some time. 

But in my experience, you would be better off spending that same amount of time/hustle working a second part-time job with guaranteed income, then investing in buy-and-hold properties. 

Most lenders will also look at debt coverage ratio which limits leverage at this time due to higher interest rates.

Personally I consider it to be more of a entry level neighborhood for first time home buyers and a blue collar neighborhood for long term renters.

I learned too late, you still have time.