Hi Raquel,You should consider closing these as two separate transactions to eliminate a potential partial release fee in the future.

I try to find out what expenses can be eliminated, decreased or offloaded to the tenant instead of just rely on rent hikes 

I tend to agree, I hate to lose all of my passive income just to eliminate my primary mortgage. just out of curiosity, what makes you say that an HOA is a hindrance?

There are multiple resources to help you find a market and eliminate markets where you don't want to invest.

I find when looking for a market to use the elimination method.

So what I did is I looked at median prices of 2 bed condos between 800-1200sqft built between 1980-1990, I did this to eliminate new condos being added into the pricing pool, and look at this rollercoaster...Detached faired a LOT better, less variability in downturns, and much better return (for this chart I did not look at semi-detached, but the trend is closer to detached)

Higher end firms do that for liability purposes and to help eliminate construction conflicts because trades do not talk to each other.

That eliminates the need for a good credit score, or a down payment, and the interest rate would be negotiable between you and your parents. 

Heidi, if you do a 1031 exchange, both the capital gains and depreciation recapture can be deferred, but the recapture isn’t eliminated—it just gets pushed to when you sell the new property.

Eliminate debt, establish a budget, and save.