The act of raising the rent can make some tenants move out of principle and if you don’t have a large tenant pool, you’ll just lose money. 

These same principles should be applied to anywhere you choose to invest.

What I mean is, the payments made to the seller, is the total payments consisting of principle/interest, property taxes and mortgage insurance all wrapped into 1 payment and made to the seller?

and throw it at our principle on our SD property.I’d prefer to 1031 the property or Air B and B it . 

My thoughts for RE- leverage amplifies appreciation- largest RE expense (principle & interest) is typically fixed for long duration (often 30 years).  

I would argue that you can only save a finite amount of money when aggressively paying off the mortgage, but you have a much higher potential increase to your assets and wealth by taking that extra principle and reinvesting it into other investment instruments.

The main thing that pops out at me every month is that less than half of my payment goes to paying the principle down, over half goes to the interest, taxes, and insurance, ect. 

Pareto principle - 80% of the problems caused by 20% of the people.

But you're buying in a high appreciating area so it may be worth having renters water down your principle while you appreciate.

Imaging if you close on a deal with low cash-flow today at a 6.5% interest rate and then refinance at 5% in 5 years after paying down some principle.