On the other hand, by house hacking you may achieve the same living for free scenario or let’s say that you are $100-$200 out of pocket, but you will also benefit from principal pay down (you gain equity with each mortgage payment), tax breaks, inflation (each year your rent may increase, while your mortgage payment stays the same), and appreciation (maybe).

Use your cash to invest in a different property and increase your cash flow and assets.

Tenant lease was up and I needed to renew the tenants lease with the increase.

A property can only actually increase the cash flow it puts out one of two ways...either increasing rent or decreasing expenses.

Sometimes it can blend higher over time with rental increases or buying bigger type properties where the cap rate purchase is higher.  

If I add in rent income, it would not be enough (because rent income is about $300 and mortgage is about $500 per month (with tax and insurance)), it would increase debt to income ratio). 

‘Hidden factors’ that increase valueFrontal curb exposure - is your house narrow or broad in comparison to others?

Value is generally tied to location,tenant type, rental increases, strength of guaranty, and length of primary lease term with no early termination rights.By the way it doesn't matter if the company has 1,000 locations.You could have parent corp. guarantee, subsidiary of say 100 locations, or they set up LLC for just that one location.

I am in the process of having a duplex built in Houston and I may have the option to add some amenities which will increase rent.

Our plan is to move forward initially with buying single family homes in the Chicagoland area, and then use the BRRRR method to raise the equity in them so that we can grow larger and larger by buying properties with the increased equity seen after each renovation.