You are now purely collection the fruits of all the trees you have planted and which are now fully grown.

If the interest rates were the same, paying the same total amount each month, either loan would be paid off at the exact same time.....interest charged each month is purely about the total outstanding principal, at that time.

You can lead a horse to water and all.

For purely investment no, it is the same as trying to use fha

I also bought 2 water heaters on sale awhile back just before the government required more insulation on the tanks. 

I know I will need to jump out there in the RE waters to really learn to swim, but I'm not quite there yet 😢😢.

You should have a conversation with the inspector about the water heater and see if he agrees or not.There are water heaters now that can be used for heat and hot water at the same time.

Start adding up replacement roof, hvac, water heater, appliances, flooring, siding, windows, water/sewer lines, painting, etc., and $1k a year will never cover everything that eventually need to be replaced.

Water is getting in to the garage quite a bit.

Is there water damage?