I paid off our cars even though paying extra towards the mortgages would have been a SLIGHTLY better option.

Therefore, you end up paying 1% extra over the life of the loan or effective .05% more on your interest.

Definitely swings the numbers a little bit, but the extra ~$500 / year for a SFH or duplex shouldn't change the game too much.

I feel that the "create the LLC" strategy is better and worth the extra steps because you can receive more money AND the rate is lower. 

I personally would not invest in that $183k house, but every house has a price that would make it a great deal.  2% difference per year is like extra $3700 in your pocket every year! 

The PV company advocates for wiring all the PV panels in series and then letting any excess electricity from the panels balance equally through all three meters - that's technically the most cost effective for the whole property, but would mean I need to install a bunch of extra hardware to measure actual electricity usage. 

We have put some of our properties into a debt snowball, by which the extra rent over the mortgage on most of the rentals all go to pay off one house at a time.  

The extra $150 or whatever amount it is that you get extra from using 30years vs 15 years can be used to invest and earn additional returns. 

Becoming an agent takes time (90 hours of class work + lots of extra hours to get started), and MONEY (a few thousand dollars to do the class work, license fees, fingerprinting, test fees, and then pay all your dues).

He basically said it was way more hassle than it was worth because of the extra filings because it makes me an scorp now.