I just am unclear if he has an allowable right to plow over the area and plant grass on about another 1/2 acre of my property that I will then have to have my yard crew maintain at my expense. 

In the past, RentingFamilyMember has filed Schedule E and apportioned expenses by rental percentage, including mortgage interest and real estate taxes between Schedule E and Schedule A.

The cost of living is extremely low compared to other cities and you can still many many positive cash flowing and 1% deals here.

If someone has a credit below our threshold, but everything else looks solid, then we will sometimes offer a credit contingency plan where we help offset the low credit score risk with a double deposit.

If you aren't willing to learn that investment asset, then you can either:1. find someone you trust to help you invest into that asset2. put money in low/no risk investment assets and just accept the low return3. blindly go into an investment asset and basically gamble.

Personally, I'd prefer to use that money payment on a fix and flip, or for marketing expenses to find that next deal.So here's what my wife and I did.

Here are the projections for 2024 to give an idea of expected returns:2024 IncomeLong-term Income$8,400Gross STR Income$45,500 (based on AirDNA projections)Additional STR Income$5,915 (mostly cleaning fees)Total Projected Income$59,8152024 ExpensesSTR Expenses$16,453 (32% ratio)Mortgage$34,476Insurance$707CapEx$3,600Taxes$2,729Total Expenses$57,965Projected Cash Flow$1,850CoC Return2.79%2024 Additional ReturnsPrincipal Paydown$2,930Equity Appreciation$16,200Mortgage Interest Deduction$7,571Total$26,701Total Projected Returns$28,551Projected Return on Investment43.1%Projected Return on Equity21.4%The CoC numbers are not impressive, and the property only cash flows as an STR, which carries some risk.

Treat it like an investment, not just where your FIL lives, and keep the expenses separate.

We chose HELOC instead of refi because we didn't want the rates to change (we got the first property during those golden days of 3% interest).I just recommend making sure the HELOC payment makes sense from a numbers perspective—consider the interest as another "expense" when you're calculating cash flow.

Our pricing strategy covers the fee as just another operating expense.