Indexes are tried and true, so I set it and forget it.

So, reducing that could theoretically improve her creditworthiness.More information is needed for a true assessment.

The State of Florida investigators with DBPR calls people VICTIMS that end up dealing with these types of operators.SEE MY POST TITLED SHTF---the true story of how I help an uneducated sellers get out of the clutches of one of these operators.

You are also right that there are probably no true right or wrong answer and it sorts of depend on the person.

It sure can't hurt.  99% of people connect via wireless but if for some reason they need to connect via hardwire it would be nice to have.

House-hack = using your primary residence to generate income, making it a true asset. 

That is not true at all. 3 apartments can most certainly use 1 water heater.

Taking the $50,000 with 8% guaranteed return example, it is true that a preferred lender has the right to get 8% guaranteed return before anyone else (basically taking $50,000 to give a $54,000 lien), but we commonly do see a structure where they have a buyout option at a future date. 

In the example, the $5k added was the forced appreciation, but with an expected sale price using the same market cap rate for easier math and to stay on point with the objective of recognizing the true cap rate of a property against the maket cap.

(If they just estimated part of it, there may be another big bill when they actually read the meter).They have sensors that are supposed to turn the water off if a pipe bursts, I don't know how good they are at detecting leaks though: https://www.treehugger.com/gadgets/water-hero-wireless-leak-detection-system.html