There are several viable strategies available to you, you just have to pick the one that works best for your personality and follow through.Some say pay the highest interest debt off first, then the second highest and so on.Others say pay the lowest balance debt off first, the the second lowest and so on.With your free $1,000 a month you could choose to put it all towards debt pay down, or use less than all if it for debt payments and the rest for saving and investing.Personally I paid my lowest balance debts off first (now I only have one left) and I have always saved and invested so I have funds for opportunities that present themselves.

Case in point: when I have difficult tenants, and their lease is up, I can send them packing.

Water claims are really held against youYou can own 20 or 30 Rentals but if you have 2 water claims TOTAL it can make it difficult to get insurance

There is a promissory note, and a Deed of Trust for the transaction, and if you look up the property in county tax records, she is the owner and his name isn't reflected anywhere.She owes a minimal amount on this home, and if a tornado or fire takes it down, she understands she is not covered, and theory still owes him for the balance, even though he also understands he'll never see that money.What would you do? 

The catch is, I’m currently in the process of buying my own home and my mortgage broker said if I invest now it will be difficult to get my personal mortgage because it will affect my DTI.

balance is 150k  will pay them off in 8 years with an interest rate of 6.5%, my monthly payment is $1003.97 I have a 120k available and Im thinking of asking the seller if he will take the 120k, it will save me an extra 30k plus all the interest. 

It seems like most fixed rate HELOCs with good terms require 1% of the balance as monthly payment. 

Will it make it more difficult to rent or resell?

I have 500k policies for my units (required in order to have my umbrella policy), but I also have an umbrella policy equal to the value of my personal assets/ net worth so I'm protected in case 500k isnt enough. however slim of getting sued for over 500k, if they do and win, it will protect them from taking away your other assets like your house and bank account balances etc. get an umbrella policy in consultation with your agent.

They look at how much your property will appraise for, subtract 20% because they want your to still have equity, then subtract your mortgage balance.