My tenants have not paid a penny since Jan 1 and when a lockout was finally scheduled Mar 26th it was cancelled due to covid. Now they owe me as of June 1st TWENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS and they dont care to even respond b...

Worcester is probably up 10% in the last 6 weeks as people are pulling $ out of the stock market to take advantage of the low interest rates and high worcester rents.

The rent covers the mortgage, insurance, and HOA, but after paying for property management fees I am losing ~$200 per month, and have little for CapEx, vacancy, and repairs, although it is newly remodeled.Based on my research I know that it is not smart to rely on property value appreciation to justify the negative cash flow, so I have researched ways to try to improve my cash flow:Increasing rent is not an optionProperty management is necessary as I live out of the countryRefinancing doesn't seem very advantageous, my mortgage is a 30 yr fixed rate at 4.375% and the rates in Denver only look slightly below that for attached homesRecasting the mortgage seems like a decent optionUsing this calculator it looks like I could go from Principal and Interest of $1,541.79 down to $1,317.05, for a monthly reduction of $224.74, achieving a slight cash flow positive, if I invest $40,000.

With little experience, an OOS BRRRR is going to be very challenging.Issac, I do not know your situation, but among the advantages for local investors is the ability to house hack. 

Yet, one of us gets the advantage of living there, but I can't think that would be for free.

I seem to be able to turn any conversation into real estate, even with friends (which has opened the doors to opportunities), but that certainly got me rolled eyes with my wife.I knew talking advantage of deals would be an issue because she wasn't TOTALLY on board, and by the time I ran numbers passed her there would already be 3 offers on the house I liked.

The home inspections is why I want to get into this in the first place, because I see that advantage I have as well and i am on the inside of my market everyday.

One huge advantage to this is that it will clean up Zillow postings that are overdue/expired or already rented out.

I am unsure if I should pouring my money into the stock market to take advantage of compound interest at my young age, or save this money for a down payment on a rental property.

Since I no longer have a day job, I just see it as a replacement as I wanted to be self-employed and I take advantage of being able to take my own deductions.