You two could potentially link up and reduce your skin in the game by working together.

By using the longer term mortgage, you reduce risk by having a cash flow cushion.

When you put yourself in the position where you do not have a professional operating on your behalf you make yourself very vulnerable and you reduce your opportunity for a good deal.

I live within a mile of my properties that is short term rental and use software and smart methods to reduce the work.

I have successfully done this multiple times and is a great way to reduce cost and time.

You will notice the amount of kilowatts used will be reduced when they are paying for it.. 

Anyway, the Duval county website has a handy property tax estimator - here's a link:http://taxcalc.coj.net/For a $150k house the property taxes would be about $2700 - assuming you don't have a homestead tax exemption, which would reduce the taxable amount by $50k.The rates for homeowners' insurance vary widely based on many variables - the age of the building, age of the major systems (roof/electric/plumbing/hvac), size, flood zone, and level of coverage desired.

Looking to reduce cost. 

First, taking out a mortgage against your home should allow you to reduce your adjusted gross income by the amount of the interest that you are paying for the loan.

If that were the case then nobody would use leverage.When an IRA engages in a debt-financed investment the portion of income that is derived from the borrowed funds is considered taxable - so 65% of gross rental income in my example.However, you have a $1,000 exemption off the top, and then get to apply the same ratio - in this case 65% - of all the normal deductions like interest on the note, depreciation, property taxes, etc. to reduce the amount of income that is taxable.The net taxable income will then generally be a pretty low number.