All that was required was recognize the highest value utilization (the law was changed so his highest value utilization is no longer allowed).  

Her Mother is required to pay ALL property taxes, insurance, maintenance, utilities.

W-2 and portfolio income interact differently, so don’t assume losses will automatically offset capital gains.

Utilities cost $150 per month.

Have you considered converting one or both of these properties into short-term rentals and seeing how that interacts with your income?

It’s the in-between work that lives in the cracks between systems and people.The biggest time drains I see consistently:Maintenance coordination and follow-upNot the repair itself, but:Chasing vendors for updatesConfirming completionVerifying qualityMaking sure invoices match the scopeThis becomes a loop of emails, texts, and reminders unless you have a very tight workflow.Tenant communication triageA lot of time gets burned sorting:What’s an emergency vs. what’s notDuplicate or unclear requestsRequests that should have been self-serviceWithout clear expectations and templates, every message becomes a custom response.Turnovers and make-readiesScheduling cleaners, painters, maintenance, inspections, utilities, and photos in the right order still requires a lot of manual coordination.

It also sounds like you have some questions on the BRRR steps where you utilize the "renovation" step to evaluate the amount of cash needed to inject into the property to ensure you have enough ARV Equity to pull out your initial captial and enough for the next down payment.I typically advise using your Realtor, loacal GC and Banker to run the numbers in advance which is actually the easy part. 

These few metrics tell you whether a hotel is just busy… or actually making money.Here’s a simple breakdown below without the industry fluff.P&L (Profit & Loss Statement) This is the financial report that shows what a hotel brings in, what it spends, and what’s left over.It includes:Room revenue and other income (food, parking, events, etc.)Operating costs (management, maintenance, utilities, insurance, marketing, taxes)Net Operating Income (NOI)Debt paymentsFinal cash flow to the investorIf you only remember one thing: NOI = Income – Operating Expenses.

Consult your tax advisor if you should get a cost segregation study done.It will depend onA) Will you be able to utilize the added depreciation expense B) The cost of the property purchasedC) The estimated added depreciation expense from the studyD) The cost of the study.Best of luck

If you don't have funds available elsewhere that would make more sense to utilize and are able to obtain a HELOC for the renovations I don't see why that wouldn't be ethical.