I think the stats way back to 40's have the majority of the paint manufactures using lead as an additive. 

You'll always be safer with that, a written contract, and paying via debt/credit card assuming their licensed & insured.Where in Houston are you looking?

When you graduate, continue renting it and move on to a house hack.I am 100% against "Low or No Money Down" philosophy unless you are an advanced investor that can take the additional risk.

You'll need to credit their rent for the time that the unit in uninhabitable. 

Additionally, If anyone would be willing to have a conversation about what they look for in CPA's and what they learned financially starting in the rental investing business I would greatly appreciate it! 

I just heard back from the bank and her response to my inquiry I emailed and said"I'm not finding any information that the adverse market refinance fee is still active, I've only found information to the contrary.Linked article from The Federal Housing Finance Agency mentioning the fee has been done away with as of August 1, 2021"Her response"You are correct, no hit for Cash out on primary residence, that has gone away but we do have adjusters for Loan to value and cash out loan to value along with credit score and 2-4 unit"This is problematic to me on so many levels, why was she willing to increase my interest rate based on her ignorance, who is watching and making sure these lenders are doing the right thing?

Additionally, you will now have 3 houses (your primary and 2 rentals) that are appreciating, which is where real wealth comes from, not from the cash flow.

So my question is, are there any creative ways to make this work for everyone so they can generate their cash flow free and clear while I am able to have a better cash on cash return and have additional capital to deploy later?

Not only will this add no additional protection, it will merely add operational costs.

I want to implement some additional verbiage in our rental agreement so this doesn't happen again and things are crystal clear to us/tenants who do end up being "month to month".