However, on the first increase with these people, I'd consider keeping as many as you want on a monthly, even if they aren't paying that monthly premium because you really don't actually know them yet, and you might want to have the ability to remove them in 30 days if you wanted, versus being locked in with a bunch of someone else's tenants.The last, perhaps main, consideration would be to make sure you're not eliminating all your cash flow if everyone was mad at your increase.  

By all means, be very proud of your ability to close leads into deals, but consider this:You wouldn't really truly need closing skills if you were doing wholesaling ethically, and properly.

Personally I believe that CA rental portfolio investing as a start comes mostly when you have a day job earning 150k/yr, and along the road have the ability to build and scale fast for you to have enough to replace the 150k, it is a lot of work and you will just be buying yourself out of a secured job to an unsecured job.

You should have sent the tenants a bill and had them pay you for the damages now.

So, you can make money and learn invaluable lessons with a HH, but it's typically a much lower risk strategy than BRRR'ing, flipping or wholesaling--which are strategies that (when executed poorly) can easily bankrupt a beginner.Moreover, house hacking can be very lucrative, and there are multi-millionaires who built their fortunes on repetitive house hacking.Now, having said all that, house hacking isn't necessarily easy (if it were, everyone would do it)...it's just easier than the more advanced strategies...House hacking still takes significant due diligence, skill in analyzing the market and the property, time and effort to learn about tenant screening and property management, the ability to anticipate appreciation/depreciation trends, etc., etc., etc....and even with lots of skill and preparation, things will still go wrong (vacancy, plumbing leaks, bad tenants, etc.)

Profitability potential, and the ability to enhance affordable housing availability.

@Creighton Bertrand The value in delayed financing lies in your ability to buy at a discountFor example:You are able to buy a house that is worth 110k right now for 75k and it needs no work.

I listened to a webcast in which Brian Turner said one of the most important skills for REI is the ability to analyze deals quickly and effectively.

How confident are you with your ability and the math with this deal that you found?

Affiliate with a Broker who is accessible and has the ability to provide you leads and mentoring.