Good luck and welcome to the wonderful world of real estate investing, the rabbit hole goes as deep as you want to explore and never ends. 

It was great, I learned to be a landlord, learned about remodeling, while living nearly free.I would recommend house hack to everyone starting out in the industry and specially if you have the ability to use a VA loan, for military personal stationed in Fort Bliss for instance, I have helped people who get a monetary allowance called BAH which is a set amount of $ for their housing needs every month.

The backyard needs to be cleaned up, and that front mulch bed looks like a big hole in the yard. 

For example, if the RE is on the edge financially, the local investor can do the tenant flip themselves as most people can patch nail holes, paint, steam clean carpet, etc.

But with the Fed's monetary policy these days, they might go lower before they go higher. 

I get the sense you decide you wanted to get into investing, looked around and saw your mom's townhouse and are now trying to make a square peg fit into a round hole.

In a good rental market you should not have to make long term concessions that could put you in the hole and backfire.

Rental properties do generate cash, but they can also eat a hole in your wallet, especially when you have to replace a boiler or water heater or change locks or replace windows or fix a leaky bathroom.

Again just hoping for input, and if people see holes in my plan.

So I ask you this: what is the monetary value of buying great Airbnb and VRBO listings?