Cost of value add was $120k, so over $580k of increase above costs.  

This is where your focus should be, not buying section 8 rentals or focusing solely on increasing your portfolio by 2x, 3x etc.

(Previous rent was $1,300 but we're about to put in a brand new kitchen from the studs, new flooring throughout the house, new furance, adding A/C, etc).So do we just pay for it all upfront and mostly drain all of our savings, or do I let the rent pay for it and utilize our other savings to get a second property this spring/summer to increase our cashflow? 

The property has a 3 car garage that could be rented to tenants to increase ROI. 

Hopefully kept good records of improvements / anything to increase the basis2.

Other most common factor: Family Size increases due to marriage or having a child. 

You would have to be significantly cheaper than my current cleaners for me to give you a shot, because I generally have only changed cleaners for either consistent subpar work or increasing/unreasonable prices.

Increase your earnings, reduce expenses, save up, and invest.

Whether or not you believe there will be drastic changes, we are already seeing increasing weather events with unusual patterns like the hurricane that whipped through Central (Inland) Florida in 2024.

It's tempting early on to leverage as much as you can so you can do more deals and keep liquidity, but increased cashflow especially with PMI will make you sleep a lot better at night.