You could also buy a single family property that you can either fix and flip or house hack.

Once you fix it up, you could refinance to pay off the HML.If you do it right, you should have enough sweat & forced equity to have 10-20% equity for the refinance.

Now purchasing a home with cash is always good b/c obviously cash is king but also I think the part you might've missed is that, the money your utilizing on these home's won't actually be yours, but the banks or whatever institution you used to fix the home or make its value worth more.

Is it best to simply increase rent by a fixed amount (e.g., $700) to cover this, or are there other strategies for handling utilities in this situation?

It had 22 of the 25 lots occupied but we'll be fixing it up, filling it up, billing back water and raising rent up to market.

All in all, I'd like to worm my way into the REI space and preemptively thank everyone who has taken the time to read my long introduction and offers their advice.Thank you,JohnTo keyword farm: rehabbing, fix and flip, house flipping, BRRRR, multi-family, apartment, long-term rentals Holla

Fix and flip.  

Today a successful brrrr is trying to recoup as much of your costs as you possibly can lol.typically i find that people are leaving behind a small amount, less than the 20% if you bought a turn key...some see that as a win. with out knowing deal info hard to quote any rate. feel free contact me. with a decent credit score mid to high 7s for 30 years fixed. also needs to cash flow.

Where you say "closed rate", we would say "fixed rate" and SOME fixed rate mortgages for INVESTMENT properties have an "early payment penalty".

Here's my take on the decision:First, let’s look at the pros and cons of paying off your current short-term rental (STR):Paying Off Your STRPros:-You Eliminates your largest fixed expense (the mortgage), which increases your cash flow significantly.