I’ve found this method to be effective, but very time consuming.

You want a property with the right things wrong; lot's of cosmetic issues and maybe one very limited major problem to solve.

You'll solve two problems - you and your family will have a larger and nicer place to live and you'll break into real estate at the same time. 

I should want to rent the place for $800, and I can see myself applying the 50% rule to $800 method rather than the $500, especially when it comes to covering the refinancing part of the property.

I am not sure who coined the method but I think it was Cody Cox and he called it the dead money approach to investing.

I used Brandon Turners The Quick and Dirty Way method on Analyzing a property.

Unless you know a licensed contractor extremely well, have supplies already or decide to explore alternative methods for getting it done, my guess is your renovation expenses will be well north of 40k. 

IF we were ever not able to DO the ongoing PM, the cost for that would come OUT of our half of the split.This second method seems like a real win-win.....

If you get a great tenant, it solves 90% of your problems in this business. 

There are a lot of people who are successful with the BRRR method in the area.