Plus, it helps you save the amount to pay him, whether just mental accounting or actually moving it to a separate (interest bearing) account.

Not all tenants have the "entitlement" mentality where they feel they can boss their landlord around whenever they want because they are paying outlandish rent money to you (in their mind), but the ones who are like that will drive you bananas.  

A quick mental extrapolation says that 24k/month is possible even with my assumptions.One key here is what has been pointed out already in this thread- what rent ratio can you get in the current markets?

Honestly I do have another tenant that is also qualified to choose from, but this lady applied first and as I was mentally going thru my options this question came up!.

From what I'm reading here (and all over BP) is that's not necessarily the way to go.I think the biggest mental hurdle for both of us is that cash flow is better than equity - especially when we're so close to paying it off.

I would think trying to find a GC that's willing to babysit a group of guys with a prison mentality, teach them, provide the tools and probably a ride to and from the job site would be next to impossible.

Things I've denied: Jamba juice because it improves someones health/mental capacity to do their job: DENIED.Hair cuts: Because someone needs to look professional.

What to prioritize?

Mentally, the problem I kept running into was that I'd end up depleting my cash reserves and only have a couple properties.

Realtors, of this mentality and work ethic will not have an Investor's best interests always in mind.