I bought a townhouse near Del Ray, Alexandria 2 years ago (pre-real estate obsession) and while the rents may never cover the mortgage, appreciation has been solid and should continue to increase thanks to a metro coming in 2021 within a 1/4 mile of my house and Amazon HQ2 about 5 minutes up the street. 

Unless the rest of the tile is solid and that's the only trouble spot, and that would take some technical knowhow to determine (AND is unlikely), the wisest long-term solution is usually to bring the tile up and start again.

We did it over the holidays so there was a solid week where nothing got done. 

Sounds like a pretty solid strategy, i’ll look into that!

The content from Bigger Pockets continues to be solid.

sounds like a solid deal!

Pick a solid B-Class suburban area.

The systems part is a must because if you don’t have rock solid systems it will turn into a mad house fast!

My personal duplex, 100 yr old wood frame home, had evidence of dry wood termites and I refused to get professionals involved.

Rates are low and you have solid equity to extract so now would be a good time.