If it's a couple of $ thousand, I'd just pay for the repair and move on.

So if your using margin at let's say 12% interest rate, to do the mentioned S&P gaining at 8% or heck let's say 10%.... congratulations you just found a neat way to go a couple hundred thousand into debt.

Good neighborhoods, excellent schools, and literally--where does the house I want sit in the actual neighborhood...I say does it look like a $650K house area when I'm done?

Play Opossum ".... help, I'm some corporate slave just feeling life slipping away in my 9-5 but I do make hundreds of thousands of dollars per year I just have nothing to do with, WHAT SHOULD I DO"..... 

This was my first property, and while it's been a great learning experience, I made several mistakes along the way—ranging from choosing a realtor who was more focused on closing the deal than finding the right house to having a poor inspection and overlooking issues hidden beneath the surface (literally).

It's really unfortunate that people flash their wins on internet, and then other thousands of people naturally try to replicate that.

We just finished one flip with a $120K spread that literally no one else wanted to touch due to the age...!

I had later found out, he had done ZERO work at all himself except for the times I was there and literally called him in and I had asked him to help his friend who was clearly struggling.

Since we just got the certificate of of occupancy literally two weeks ago,  we are looking all options to maximize return on investment. 

You definitely did your homework on quite literally everything, so that is great to see!