Principle paydown is something that a lot of people gloss over, but your interest rate and loan balance play a big part in this. 

The current loan balance is 199,XXX.

You should see balances if any you owe to the IRS there and be able to pay.

Sounds like I'll need to find that balance point between far enough ahead to not miss out on advance bookings, and late enough to use the algorithm boost to help as the season nears. 

We intentionally provide a number of checks and balances within FlipSystem (deal analysis, rehab bid audits, and inspection report reviews just to name a few) to ensure that our team is always providing feedback and analysis to clients on their potential deals.

We don’t buy those and sounds like you're aware to look for a slightly better property yourself already.Detroit has the the highest rent to price ratio in the country…and we’ve found the best balance of price/location within the area.Here is a picture of my portfolio...as you will see.

I suggest asking for a rent roll that includes current tenant balance just to see how healthy the rent roll is. 

We feel stuck right now on what the "right" thing to do is in finding the balance between cash flow and equity when house hacking.

When you purchase the house, closing costs go on the balance sheet.

Rent growth also outpaced expense growth in many markets the previous few years so you could see it as a re-balancing.