Currently, there is approx a $60k balance and the home is likely worth approx $100k.

When you get ready to move into actual investing and want more classes, you'll be asked to pay the balance of $18,000.  

Just trying to balance the budgets on these though.

Cashflow of $237/mo 47% cash on cash and instant 20k equity on the balance sheet.I use a property managemenrmt company and my last 3 properties were rented in less than a week.  

As a property manager my leasing agents would bring me applications where an applicant has broken a lease in the past.I would advise my leasing agents to ask the applicant to provide a letter on letterhead from the previous management company where they broke their lease proving their balance is $0.00 owing no outstanding balance.If they had any outstanding balance we would not lease to them until they have taken care of the outstanding balance. 

If you have a strong balance sheet and experience you may be able to go alone, but there are a number of boxes to check.Some of the conduits are very bullish on self storage assets, with a few caveats.  

We digitally staged our last 2 houses and that was a nice balance.

I'd make sure that if you decide to do a deal like this, that you structure it so that she isn't losing the equity she has built up or find a way to balance things out.

Couple that with the fact that the population of the United States as a whole has more then tripled over the past 100 years and it is easy to see that the balance between supply and demand have been tilting for a long time, and probably will for a long time. 

As for leveraging property, I've been told by friends in the banking world that they basically want a direct line to the leveraged property, not just assurances from a balance sheet.