My goal is to achieve financial freedom through house hacking and long-term rental properties.

for me, the ones that cashflow the most are the ones that I bought with 3% long term debt, they were new (low maintenance) and they are in high appreciating areas(just a bonus but does not impact cashflow).

Long term $ can range from 6's-10% range depending on all types of factors - LTV, location, unit count, debt coverage, borrower strength, full doc or lite doc programs, etc..

However, I don't like the fact that properties they will show me, they will have a financial interest in, because it could affect my purchase negatively. what are the pros and cons of going with an agent that requires dual agency vs. not?

There are investors with 15% down options for DSCR, just need to make sure the property can debt service itself. 

Or we gradually perform high-quality updates for a live-in flip, then roll the equity into a new home.Regarding rental income, we aim to boost income, lower our effective tax rate by generating more low tax-drag income with rental income (since there’s not much we can do to lower out W2 tax bills) and have retirement cash flow.To compare the financial impact over 10-20 years, we want to analyze renting versus flipping.

@Fulati PaerhatiRecommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

Been a lot of work and Lot of exposure financially I borrowed about 50 million to pull this off..

With 0% down and 30 year amortization, your monthly debt service will be $1756.

If not, these are liabilities and wouldn't advise adding debt.