A large dilemma for my client was should I put 20% down and erase PMI/increase cashflow or put 5% down and do a little bit of value add.

The other quote i have for 18 seer system is 21k, cant understand what increases the cost by 10k from a single stage 14 seer system.

And I have to assume rental rates for other unit will appreciate higher than inflation, plus my Dad's slight increase in his rent to me 'maybe'...I see this as a net gain for me as even taking a ~$3k loss (yes this doesn't include over costs associated with managing a rental) each year for say 10 years, I save $60k of an original downpayment and can push it all into as tax advantaged vanguard fund gaining hopefully more than my loss on a year over year basis.

I'm excited to surround myself with like-minded investors in the area who are also working to pursue financial freedom/ increase income via investing in assets. 

Cash that sits is useless and losing value my the second.

We increased the rent from 275$ to 500$ for the upper tenant which he agreed to.

-you don’t have to pay interest on a large fixed sum of money until you find or are ready to pull the trigger on a deal-it allows you lock in some or all of the amount at a fixed rate so your protected against rising interest rates ( given the current market conditions I believe we will see a couple more increases from the Fed this year which will increase borrowing costs for any variable rate products)- See this attached article that does a good job of simplifying it https://www.investopedia.com/mortgage/heloc/fixed-rate-option/

I'm hoping this increases my risk tolerance and marketability to lenders.Any thoughts?  

Honestly it took us about 7 or 8 months last year to find something, and we have been unable to find anything worth doing this year.Brrr and flips seem at best very tight, throw in incredibly large increases in property taxes and not many properties cash flow. 

Leverage is the method investors use to increase cash flow.