Separate entrances/garages from the front.The bonus here is if I could also book the studio on occasion and when both book concurrently, I would travel and stay elsewhere. 

I end up with the same amount of money each month and the tenant doesn’t feel they have a free ticket for their pet to mess up the house And of a renter takes the place and I let that is a bonus 

There was bonus item in the garage, a completely restored 1970 El Camino SS that the seller threw in for free. 

Bonus points if I've gained any value-add equity.Part of me says playing around with debt like this is dangerous, another part says this is "good debt" and all your doing is leveraging equity you've earned in your property.

@Anthony Parsons at those price points, yes you should be able to use secondary/bonus entitlement for another VA purchase. 

We had some "big" bonuses ($1400 after taxes) from our work coming at end of 2021 and the last bonus was received today this week.- About a month ago, he tells me he's depressed since his mom passed, his therapist has upped his meds, and now he can't function properly. 

After sprucing it up you can pull equity out of it (the down payment dollars and what ever added bonus equity you get from fixing it up to 80-85 % or VA 100% if your a veteran.

Lenders have tried factoring bonus, prorating the bonus for 2022, saying i live rent free but nothing seems to work here.

Huge bonus points for houses on corners.

You could also house hack, meaning you could buy the first home, live in it for a year, then use your secondary/bonus entitlement to buy another home with a VA loan with 0 down (or close to 0, depending on your entitlement), and keep the first one as a rental.