I'm curious about trying this with one of my houses (even thinking of renting a room in my own place), just curious if my market (Oak Park/Berkley suburbs north of detroit) would be a good market to do this.

So there is nothing wrong with taking your chips off the table at ANYTIME in the cycle is my thought process..

These two reasons (while small reasons) slowly start to chip away at the mortgage and speed up the process ever so slightly. 

Granite is quite effective as it is scratch, stain and chip resistant. 

Only do it if your market/situation demands it, like if you need hurricane windows or are doing a flip and want everything done or the damn things don't open or they have chipping paint.

As far as "livable" and "habitable" The house will pass FHA standards if you can't walk in without choking on cat smell, but if you have some chipped paint on a window sill it fails.

Most of these land lords owned properties in Cicero, Berwyn, Forest Park or Oak Park, IL.

Chip :)

Eat more salad or more potato chips?

Intel is a great example, who is building the largest chip manufacturing plant in the US right here, and it will be a $20 billion dollar investment that brings a few new thousand jobs.https://www.dispatch.com/story/business/2022/01/21/intel-ohio-building-computer-chip-factories-licking-county-jersey-township/9173472002/ Another example of economic growth is the upcoming Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center Inpatient Hospital which is a 1.9million square foot hospital that will bring over 800 new beds and a thousand new jobs. https://abc6onyourside.com/news/local/new-osu-hospital-expected-to-transform-health-careHere are a few more recent investments https://www.10tv.com/article/money/business/hydrogen-power-company-hyperion-bringing-700-jobs-to-columbus/530-25907aab-5517-4661-a9f3-d2ed2d5be6b0 https://news.wosu.org/news/2022-02-08/rumpke-to-build-50-million-recycling-facility-in-columbus Check out The Complete Guide to the Columbus, Ohio Real Estate Market which goes through the Columbus, Ohio market in depth and will give you a better scope of where the highest levels of growth are taking place and where to look to invest.