I am in my working years, not relying on rental income, and am focusing mostly on improving my overall net worth (not as focused on living off the cash flow).

There's a decent chance that if you have good credit and improve your DTI over the next year, you can put a Heloc on the property while it's still your primary to unlock some of that equity if needed.

Get your CRM up and running and keep in contact with everyone with content about the market, keeping in touch with past clients - just asking them how their house is, let them know that you were thinking of them when you drove past the house,  ask them if they made any improvements, etc.

--reach out and thank them upon getting the booking and ask if they have any questions--send a "Welcome" email or automated message during the week prior to arrival--reach out the day after arrival to ask how everything was the first night and ask if there is anything that the property needs--reach out at the end of the stay (that morning or within 24 hours) and ask how everything was, anything to improve, anything to add to the house and then offer an incentive for returning guests.My 2 cents,Mike Absolutely stay in your place as Mike said.You will see things the cleaners will never let you know about.We stayed in our PF will putting up the Christmas decorations and found a cracked plastic shelf in the fridge. 

Being that the new property that we buy will become our primary residence and we are buying a fixer upper, how do we get the best tax breaks for the repairs and/or improvements?

Landscaping upgrades, exterior painting, new siding, a new roof, and upgraded front doors and windows can dramatically increase ARV by improving the home's exterior appearance.5.

So far mostly people are telling me I'm probably stuck until their lease is over. meanwhile I also need to pay down my debt and improve credit score. 

. $10k in debt does not seem like it is worth filing bankruptcy as you also will have the filing fees to file bk and if you use an attorney it could be another $5k, To me if you can save $10,000 a year then start saving and pay off that debt, as filing bk will hurt your credit wehere paying off these debts will improve your credit.

This would improve the property value and also allow you to lease out the 5th unit.

Since 2020 we've seen large asset value increases and large tax increases, and more modest insurance increases but we've been able to improve our profit margins sufficiently to keep up with inflation and even do a little better in many cases.