That's awesome you have been able to increase the rent rates beyond expectations, secure an off-market deal, and leverage yourself as an agent.

If your goal is to retire your fiance, your best bet is to increase your W2 income and lower your expenses.

Debt increases risk AND reward. 

There would be somethings I'd like to just mention to them to see if it would help increase their business, but otherwise let them grow and we just have a percentage.For example, this could be part of the structure.

Also the more people you tell what you do the more deals you will see, for every 20 I get really only 1-2 are worth a deep dive! 

Be extremely conservative - assume very low rent growth, very low appreciation, and fairly stagnant interest rates, meaning minimal opportunity to increase cash flow through a refinance. 

Last I checked it did not have any, but worth a look now.  

Hi Travis, You absolutely could increase your renovation sending.

...if the vacancies are frequent or extended, it can be a big expense, so I analyze this thoroughly.As for house-hacking specific costs, there are things like furniture/appliances/decor for the common areas of the house, costs of screening applicants (like background checks), cost to advertise, the time and effort required to manage a house hack, etc.  ...although these expenses are worth consideration, they tend to be much smaller and almost inconsequential compared to the big capex expenses that can come with buying the wrong property (e.g.; you might spend a couple hundred bucks on tenant screening, but a new roof might cost $20k+).Back when I was house hacking regularly, one of the most significant "costs" was the cost of my time and effort to acquire tenants (which includes all the time and effort of posting ads, responding to inquiries, answering questions, doing viewings, screening applicants, managing tenants once they were in-place, etc.).

Are they worth it?