The rules and payment standards vary significantly from one area to another, so familiarizing yourself with the local housing authority's procedures is key.

In theory, since we don't have a prepayment penalty, you could borrow the money, complete the rehab and pay off your loan before your first payment was due.

I assume you currently have a residential mortgage that does not have a pre-payment penalty.

I guess my question is this: is the very low cash flow (due to my low down-payment and high interest) going to improve?

@Madison SloanTo start house hacking, focus on saving for your down payment, researching target markets like Salt Lake City or North Idaho, and building a strong team of professionals, including an agent and lender.

I texted her the rent amount on Tuesday afternoon (per her request) & the various ways to pay it - she said she would "get with me on the payment". 

Deduct NEW property taxes after you buyDeduct home insurance costsDeduct maintenance percentage, typically 10%Deduct vacancy+tenant nonperformance percentage(we recommend 5% for Class A, 10% Class B, 20% Class C, good luck with Class D)Deduct whatever dollar/percentage of cashflow you wantNow, what you have left over is the amount for debt service.Enter it into a mortgage calculator, with current interest rate for an investment property, to determine your maximum mortgage amount.Divide the mortgage amount by either 75% or 80%, depending on the required down payment percentage - this is your tentative price to offer.If the property needs repairs, you'll want to deduct 110%-120% of the estimated repairs from this amount.Be sure to also research the ARV and make sure it's 10-20% higher than your tentative purchase price.As long as the ARV checks out, this is the purchase price to offer.It is probably significantly below the asking price.

I use Buildium for tracking rent, fees, leases, and collecting online payments, but I don't use their reports for much, as I end up copying my online banking each year into spreadsheets.I've been using Rental Hero for the last hour and already impressed with it.

There is no requirement to use them as mentors for doing the rehab projects as described in the horror story above, but they do their own underwriting so they will be investing themselves to assure the deal makes sense and is successful to assure they get their payments and interest. 

. - Fortunately, our transparent systems allowed the owner to catch it:)- Full transparency - we would have never caught this honest mistake:(An owner also needs to be involved to approve & fund large expenses: maintenance, property tax & insurance payments (if they want to be more hands off), evictions, etc.A great PMC should also have a chat with you annually about your future plans for a property and your portfolio.