I own two properties there, but insurance costs have skyrocketed.Lately, securing home insurance has become increasingly challenging due to the high risk of hurricanes, flooding, and other factors.

If it sold for $120K in 2007  , and your rent is $2000 a month , the landlord is probably cash flowing rather well .   

.- Working a W2 as a firefighter, posting and consuming content- Leaving my W2 to dive deep into real estate investing and working as an agent... and still watching/posting content all while business was ok - Deleting social media apps (one have one on my phone that I use 10 minutes or less a day), diving deep into building my business and skills which have drastically increased due to pure focus and increasing my business significantly- moral of the story... focus on the things you need to do in business (dollar productive activities) and life experiences while reducing consumption will increase your success  

I have the ability to put 25% down or more to increase cash flow.

I don't like to gamble on rent appreciation.

Obviously what some of them have done is decrease consumer spending and increase savings.

We had a very slight increase recently in the smaller of the two investments.

I don't remember the exact cost when I did it but I remember thinking it was cheaper than expected.I didn't see a comment mentioning that you should just include utilities in the rent and increase it based off that so I'll be that guy.

Listen to Brandon Turner's podcast where someone he interviewed shared how this made a HUGE increase on her income: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1bS4eL80KL1rWY4vyCMjXh?

The property was in a great market but needed a full cosmetic rehab and basement finish to add a bedroom and increase resale value.