I am a kitchen designer and do lots of flips/rentals for real estate agents and if you don’t know what you’re doing, it can end up costing you more money because of mistakes.

If you self-manage your rental, by default you are the landlord - you are executing the lease with your tenant, without a middleman.Some property management companies use leases that designate themselves as "landlord" - the owner is not a party to the rental agreement.

To clarify a commercial zoning designation is not the same thing as a five unit building being a 'commercial' building for lending.

(Unlike the flipping shows where they focus on drama and design).

If the floorplan allows you can certainly make changes that either add square footage or re-designate space (Example, convert a den to a bedroom). 

The reality of it all is that many fail to recognize that life is designed fundamentally on the idea of TIME ⏳(plant > cultivate > harvest OR sow > reap). 

Purchase price: $80,000 Sale price: $142,000 I designed and did most of the work myself with the exception of tile installation.

The El Paso county assessor is looking at changing our property tax rate designation to commercial so you are correct on rates.

But don't worry about tiling outside of the shower on the walls - that's not really needed, even in homes over $500k - purely a design choice, and the same look can be accomplished with wainscoting.

I fully funded the rehab and provided design and project management services, then (as an agent) listed the home for sale.