But what if your current financing strategy is quietly eating into your profits?

I would eat the cost associated with the inspection. 

If you are buying a single family house, two trips per year will likely eat up all your "free cash flow", so you might as well have it be a place you would go anyways to visit family, or near a vacation spot, etc.

But realize also that if you pay off a 2.99% loan your payment on the DSCR is most likely going to skyrocket and eat up a lot of that  cash flow.  

All those things can eat up the chemicals very quickly and lead to an unsanitary condition.3) Absolutely ZERO guests wants to hear that you did not drain clean and refill the hot tub after the prior guest.

If you find something, go hard money and then spend the next few months re-leveraging the existing debt.You can have your cake and eat it too, just be patient my friend. 

Paying PMI will certainly eat into your cash flow..

To kind of give you a sense of what you are asking, it is like me asking you if Eating Out is a good choice? 

It didn't change my algorithm ranking and I ended up eating some of the cleaning cost unless I wanted to be completely out of whack with my market (I'm already on the higher end).  

Is there looming capital expense items that could eat up years of your cash flow.3. what about other regions/types of property.4.