Our first choice would be to rent it out.

Typically, the wholesaler will facilitate an "open house" and provide a window of opportunity for you and GC/Contractor to view the property and assess the number of repairs needed to execute your exit strategy of choice.

Vince,James had an excellent response to your question.

If you connect with me I will share an in depth excel worksheet with you that breaks down EVERYTHING.

A lot of the times the areas that make the most sense in the excel sheet may not be places you would like to live.

It seems like a very simple Excel spreadsheet should solve the analysis concerns in regards to the number of hours spent.

House hacking - renting out a portion of your primary residence to cover part of, all, or more than your mortgage payment - is an excellent strategy for investors of all experience levels to reduce or even eliminate their housing expenses and begin to generate cash flow right where they live.

Your are right in one sense that Zillow has mislead the public, but they have done it in the same way nearly every public company does, sometimes by choice, sometimes by convention. 

Rental real estate is traditionally an excellent medium-to-long-term investment from a financial standpoint.

And before that quickbooks/excel.