Then it comes down to the opportunity cost of doing one versus the other even with the employer match.

Definitely read this too as a start: https://www.biggerpockets.com/guides/ultimate-real-estate-investing-guide/introduction- And the other BiggerPockets books are great resources too along with all of the site content and forums which are free - Narrow down your focus on where you want to start and what you want to learn, probably best to pick one thing at a time to really dive into and get good at versus trying to learn every strategy in-depth at the same time.

@Derek Holt, this is really an employment attorney question, but in general a contractor versus employee has very defined responsibilities and little oversight on the how. 

I've explained to my partner that we could both take out 13K each(half of 26K) and essentially have $16K total into the property versus the original $43K total.

I bet @Natalie Kolodijwould know, not sure how to tag her, other than trying to use the 'at sign'

Anyone can run a short-term rental business during good times, but the hard times quickly differentiate the real players versus the amateurs.Do you have the resourcefulness and emotional resilience to successfully operate during the hard times?

Was probably a great property for the landlord.Your best bet would be to work with a local property manager that knows the market and knows how to advertise to prospective tenants.

I got an appraisal up about 10% because he included a recent sale that required nearly a full gut versus my fully gut rehab. 

Expect to put down 20-25%.Adding to @Whitney Hutten's comments, I underwrite to 15% combined for repairs and CapEx.Using a conservative rent of $995 as @Jeremy Pearson intimated, I bet you cash flow ~$200/month and see a CoC ROI of ~10%.

My bet is it will be more than the aggregate of all the months of payments you make from now until then.The fact is that the odds of you retiring with the broker you start with are similar to if not worse than your odds of winning the Powerball.