All  real estate activities fall somewhere on the spectrum, with say owning a real estate brokerage at the extreme ACTIVE BUSINESS line and investing in a REIT index fund on the PASSIVE INVESTMENT line.  

.- thanks   1) on the  1st mtg  refinance proposal at 4.1%  -  sounds like they are  offering you the  higher note  rate  so they can  absorb  some of the closing costs .....make sure you get a loan estimate and  review the details about them picking up all costs  ( titel / escrow / recording /  credit  etc ...)    2)  also  check the  index / margin and  caps   on the new  loan  offer   and  compare these to the  present loan  details  ...if you  keep this loan past the   rate/ payment  adjustment  period - you want to make sure  you  are aware of  how the ARM  can  change   3) the offer  to  do  " free  "  refinances in the  future  is  no  big deal  beacuse  any lender  can offer this  via  a higher rate  to  absorb  all costs 

The main objective is to take advantage of the google business listing because there's a bigger chance of you getting yourself indexed on first page there quicker than your actual website.

Gains through crypto felt uncertain to me but still had a draw, so I decided I wouldn't use more than 5% of my disposable income to gamble (whether on leveraged index funds like QLD or crypto).

.: @Mike ReynoldsI think you're right and that's what I've tried to chime in with a few times - if you compare passive index investing vs. passive retail investing, indexes win.  

An index fund is a better option...eventually, I'm a fan of paying them off and treating them like fixed income, but not now assuming that your financial house is in order and you like owning and managing real estate.

The blue line is inflation, red line is the Raleigh house price index. 

As of now its growing in an Index Fund; however, that's super boring, but SAFE.

They will be fixed for a short term then adjusted or renewed or they will be adjustable, there may or may not be a cap  rate, so check on the index and the spread as well.

Crime index is really low.