We are shooting for 3x income, but might settle for as low as 2x, if the person seems like a good candidate.

We took the depreciation on our personal tax return in 2022.

Response to #1: Some lenders allow for layered entities while others want warm bodies/natural persons to be direct managers.

James has time and time again always posted extremely helpful information on every post, he would be a great person to connect with. 

I would vet them intensely and make sure the lease is personally guaranteed. 

My advice when looking at a house hack is to not get too in the weeds on how the property or building performs compared to other properties in the area, but rather view it from the lens of what it will do your personal finances and the impact it will have on your personal cost of living.  

Haven't personally used either but they are both on my radar.

As long as the person hasn't used RAFT in the recent past then RAFT will cover up to $7,000 for first, last and security as long as they qualify.

If you can't keep control of your personal finances, you are highly unlikely to succeed in real estate investing.

You may know this already, but out-of-state investors are also sometimes surprised by Texas’ “high” property tax rate (but no personal income tax).