I’m originally from NYC and I’m currently working overseas for nearly 10 years as a Construction Manager and have been enjoying my time here as well as my family (and the tax benefits too!!).

There is nothing in the original post that stated the resident's situation was anything like yours.  

From Excel, I originally switched to QBO, but I had to do quite a bit of finagling to build it properly for my use as a REI.

So this is actually fairly straightforward... 99% of houses don't make good rental properties - your original primary will not make a good rental. $2900 (mortgage payment) - $2500 (projected rent) = -$400 (monthly cashflow).

I still made a ton of money net, from original cost basis to after splitting things unfairly.

I really did consider the LLC until my lender said it could not happen under my original loan. 

I'm originally from San Francisco and ran into that same issue back in 2021.

Quote from @Dongzi Wu: The original one was deleted, creating this new one. 

Purchase price: $125,000 Cash invested: $25,000 Sale price: $230,000 Bought the property about 4 years ago, originally it was a 2-family rental.

It’s so serious that, beginning January 1st in California, any lender who knowingly originates a consumer-purpose loan misrepresented as a business-purpose loan can face criminal charges and jail time.