Permits expire without an inspection within 180 days, so you may have to renew the permit which can be very pricey depending upon the jurisdiction.....Anything you can rent out is a better choice than say, a master suite, IMHO.....any chance this would work as a STR?

Sounds like a big project so if you want to be above board, you need workers comp insurance, payroll taxes, and ensure you follow the rules/laws.For accounting purposes, I love Quickbooks but a simple excel spreadsheet can work just fine too.

Of course, keep in mind that there are costs to fixing up the property, costs to travel to view the property, and when you refinance your monthly mortgage payment will go up a little bit due to the higher loan amount, but overall this strategy is an excellent one. 

. :)If you carried your 2018 NOL to 2019 or carried your 2019 NOL to 2020 - you only have UNTIL OCTOBER 15th, 2021 to reaffirm this choice.

We have about $15,000 saved up at this point and both have "Excellent" credit (785 for my wife, and over 800 for myself).

Good choice, with leverage it is a much better option, glad you saw the majority view, I have had a few people ask me the same question and they usually wanted to be super passive and realized RE wasn’t as passive as they thought, only reason I said stocks wouldn’t be bad.

I have an excellent credit score, have 20k ready to go on a down payment, and a 32% DTI.Also, I'm unsure what forum to put this in.

Reason bought house was in good area, was priced to point where if students didn't work out could revert to family home which ended up being a wise choice.  

Someone whom you have no choice but to work with? 

There are many other choices also. just put it in google and watch all the choice come up.