I'd also negotiate a reasonable rent increase to compensate for additional wear and tear/ utility usage from having an extra person.She sounds like a great tenant for asking permission.

It puts extra money in the owner's pocket every time.However, there are some tenants that refuse.

The two others were 2 bed 1.5 bath at approx 925 sq ft.Once the existing leases were up in Sept 2020, I raised rents by $200 each on two and $225 each on the other two for an extra $850 per month in cash flow.

As does Walmart and every fast food chain other than chic-fil-a at this point.

If the more expensive 3500sq ft house was going to prevent me from getting another loan down the road because it added an extra $150,000 of debt I might stay in the existing house for a while longer and buy the 2500 sq ft rental house.

@Phat Dao A good use of that extra space we’re you were thinking of adding that gauge could be adding a ADU(guest house or mother-in-law sweet) that will add $500-$1,000/m (depending on the local market) that is my go to to add value to a home if there is extra area to build.

If it's off-market have you considered wholesaling it for some extra cash?

This is the route I'm *most likely* gonna take since hard money lenders that I've contacted have too many extra upfront fees in addition to extremely high interest rates.

Is it worth it to take on the extra work, existing or potentially new local ordinances, and seemingly new daily competition for a higher return or have I already missed the boat?

To me is seems like 3bed/2bath is a nice sweet spot for some areas of Pittsburgh where people are looking for an extra bedroom/office for work-from-home.