If you have a significant loan amount that you're increasing the interest rate on, that's an important factor to consider.

If you're not factoring the value of your time, then hiring an expert for one house-hack may not "pay for itself" in terms of strictly dollars.

House hacking will be the best way towards your goals, as if you factor in the rent savings it is hands down the best ROI you'll see.

That made the idea of a charge to the contractor for delay difficult to justify, and the contract is silent about factors outside of the contractor's control or issues like approvals, which are naturally the owner's responsibility.

The two main criteria that I look at are ensuring that my PITI is covered or close to covered while living in the property and making sure the property cashflows when I move out when factoring in Capex.

The factors are figured out by checking specific supply and demand and average days on market.

or something close to that.Given that rates will vary depending on so many factors, such as credit score, DTI, etc.

Timing also plays a factor.

For conventional loans, your employment and income will be a huge factor in the bank deciding whether to loan to you or not.  

The two walls that I had issues with under the dry wall are brick so I'm thinking of exposing the brick since that's in style, cleaning the brick, patching up the missing mortar and painting it with a water proof white paint.