I appreciate the help

Does anyone have any experience or advice they are willing to share to help me work through this issue?

Make sure to plan ahead and speak to an investor friendly lender that can help you look ahead at potential roadblocks and how to avoid them or overcome them before getting your self into a sticky situation. 

Super helpful info though.

You will want to use some of the free calculators to help you with expenses, NOI, and cash flow.

Some guests don't get it fully, and I make a quick video showing how to use it and make it a part of my guidebook/automatic email sending.

I truly want to help good renters out where/when I can.What is considered a reasonable amount of time for an increase (would be 10% increase), w/o putting my self in a position of trying to catch up to market rents at some point in the future.

There are several apps out there that can help if you are not using them already, one is called padsplit that i've seen. 

I was working as a lead carpentry for a remodeling in company in Seattle, but left in Oct. 2023 to help with my family's property and turn my side work full time, which is slowing down.

If it helps, 800 credit score and theoretically could build for cash...but cash is earning more and doesnt want to tie up the liquidity.