Don’t wanna do a rent increase incorrectly, or worse make misteps with late payments or problem tenants. 

If I put some upgrades into the house during my two years occupying it, I could increase both the equity and rental value.

I see that in the calculations you didn't plan for an increase in rent after the reno.

As an exercise, I would be curious to see what other MSAs and counties have seen increases or decreases, along with their tier designation.

@Emilio Garibaldi JrI would talk to her and give her some options :1 - She can continue with the property maintenance as agreed upon 2- You can call a mowing service for her and she can pay for it 3 - You can pay for the maintenance and increase her rentLet her pick what works best for her but either way your lawn needs to be done .

At this point, I would pass on this investment unless if you have a way of forcing appreciation (increase the value of the home) and therefore increasing rent.I hope this helps!

Also, the area is in rural Georgia, but there's been +30% population increase since 2010.

It should increase the value enough where most of my original investment can be pulled back out.

They will need to become more stable and as easy to use as a credit card, then we will see their use greatly increase.

You can also add your own cash to the purchases and that would actually increase your equity.The strategy above of selling and 1031ing into multiple properties with some of the purchases paid for in cash and some with maximum leverage is a great late market strategy that lets you protect some properties from debt risk while still letting you aggressively use leverage on others.