A successful rental property should offer positive cash flow, meaning your rental income should exceed your monthly expenses (mortgage, taxes, insurance, maintenance, etc.).To find the right tenants, ensure the property is priced competitively within the local rental market.

If so, this serves as a great example of how much the market has changed - if someone were to buy this property in 2025, it would have significant negative cash flow, whereas you have positive cash flow given the price point of purchase in 2021.  

The monthly cost is high, but we currently are cashflow positive about $1,200 a month.

@Juan Perez Seems like you are in an awesome position!

@Timothy Frazier  This will be tough as the HML will want a 1st position loan, but so will the other lender providing the rest of the funds. 

With your strong W2 income, you’re in a position to recover and reassess your strategy.If you decide to stay in REI, focus on what worked—like your earlier BRRRRs and house hack.

Additionally, the price point is still cheap enough to find the 1% rule and positive cash flow and there's amazing appreciation potential.

Other places with supply constraints will likely continue to see positive real price growth.

One thing that we felt was important in selecting our property was to hedge our bets by ensuring the property would function as a long term rental since we know the current climate in New Orleans regarding STRs is not positive and there have been on-going regulations coming out because of this. 

Attend local meetups, analyze at least five deals per week, and connect with investor-friendly agents to position yourself for success.