My presentations were geared towards new construction, but there are ways to improve existing homes as well.The main keys are to understand how energy (heat/cold) moves through houses and how to eliminate the weak links in heat loss/gain. 

Save money on build by eliminating garage.

If people can access basic needs, and even new homes, for free it will eliminate rent and sales for many existing homes.

If they can own their dream escape, eliminate the costs and annoyance of booking a rental every time and carry most of some of the costs by house sharing with someone else, that's good enough for them. 

You sound (I could be wrong, but probably not) like you want to use your background to eliminate some of the guesswork, but real estate investing is learned by being at properties, talking with other investors, going to meetups, etc.Predictive data for investors is wholly flawed because it can't see inside of the houses.

I am not sure how old your mother is, but if she has substantial equity like you are saying, she can pull it out, pay off the original loan, and even eliminate her payment. 

The lender I spoke with in the new area said our DTI is the biggest issue, and that selling one of the properties would solve that problem, but selling one house hack for another of a similar price/cash flow isn't something I want to do.Still fairly new to REI so any and all advise is greatly appreciated.If your sole purpose is to eliminate higher payment debt from your personal credit history, a DSCR refinance would work only in the case that the lender you work with is a non-recourse or recourse non-reporting lender.

Seems to eliminate the risk in trying to find tenants yourself and making sure they all pay.

For risker applicants, require a guarantor (who is not "judgment proof") to agree to pay for damages and unpaid rent.Unfortunately, you cannot eliminate all risks of loss, so there are times that a tenant may end up causing damage beyond the security or coverage you have to pay for damage, but the above items will help.

Hoping to learn from the community to eliminate past mistakes in real estate investing.