Do the math and you'll see it doesn't make sense.The best way to invest: increase earnings, reduce expenses, and save.

Our actual carriers used to be Secura, but they seem to be getting out of a lot of insurance lines or pricing so high as to have customers drop off, and we just moved policies in Nov. to Hanover Insurance. 

In some homes planting the front or placing pots could increase the curb appeal, in others it could be paint or furniture etc.

We are not aware of any price increase so far.We will inform you in advance if there are any changes."

The only two ways to rectify this are (1) purchase the property far below market price or (2) significantly increase the property net income usually through some method of “repositioning”. 

Keep in mind that they can increase that period if they get complains from the community, so make sure you're in good relationship with your neighbors.

And since you are licensed, you can potentially do some sales on the side to increase income and save up for investing.

If you have extra cash at the end of the month, then do double up payments on the mortgages so the principle is reduced and this will increase your heloc room.

My plan for this year is improve my credit, get my real estate license (to increase my income on top of my W-2), possibly career transition into the property management space (to learn more), and save as much as possible and learn as much as I can.I’d love to house hack close to home but my area is so expensive it seems like it’d be close to impossible. 

Owner occupied united increased by 8.4%"Still, although the overall share of households that rented decreased, the number of rented units increased by over a million units (43.3 million to 44.6 million)."