You could do that if paying off the house was your primary goal. But it's cheap to borrow right now so what I think is a more prudent strategy (especially if your goal is to grow your rental business) is to keep those profits in an account ready for future investment or to cover the inevitable pop up expenses. As I said earlier, vacancies happen (planned and unplanned), evictions happen (months of lost rent plus some extra move out/make ready expense is probable), repairs happen (planned and unplanned). As a data point, in the last 12 months I have had a water heater go bad ($1200), an AC unit need replacing ($2500) and hurricane damage ($1200...and of course I carry a $1500 deductible, go figure). Best not to be sweating it to cover those expenses or covering just basic mortgage payments and upkeep while the property is vacant (as my dad was fond of saying, "that lawn ain't gonna mow itself!").

For me, the side hustle isn't about income now. I get plenty of that for my current needs from Momma Delta right now. Its about replacing that income when Momma Delta is out of the picture, be it because of retirement (early or otherwise), medical issues (car wrecks happen even to the best drivers), or these JVs don't pan out after all and Delta goes T-U during the next economic downturn or black swan event. That's my bottom line.