Both me and my husband are currently working, so the excess, if we do have it, sometimes goes to one of our rental houses.

It will typically last long enough that it goes out of style before it needs replacing from excess damage.  

One of my current tenants is using a rug I had in the house for staging; he's SUPER clean & it'll be well taken care of . . .

Know the house and the finishes, if its out date stage it to look modern or make some renderings of the updates.

Depending on your interest rates you may be able to get a better return on your excess money than by paying off the mortgages.

Speaking as both an investor and realtor based in FtL, these small MF are very difficult to get into at the moment due to excessively high pricing leading to negative cashflow if you plan to finance them. 

Remember you’re in the “I don’t know what I need to know” stage.  

Additionally our real estate investments have given us new opportunities that is making this next stage of our wealth building journey easier. 1.

As a Property Manager in a market where many owners choose to manage on their own, I've seen several examples of owners losing their homes or properties because their tenants did not pay or caused excess damage.

At this stage in my investing career I don't buy things that don't cash flow, so if the fixer upper is going to bleed cash until it's fixed, I wouldn't invest in it.