re: Dave Ramsey's advice to pay off a car loan, rather than invest

I think we are on different wavelengths here as I'm not sure why you are even bringing up a couple points since they don't matter in this case...

Appreciation on the property has nothing to do with whether you own it outright or have a mortgage on it so we can take that point off the table as a net wash. It will appreciate the same.

Why does whether he is renting out part of the property have anything to do with this discussion? You can do that if you own it outright or hold a mortgage on it. So that point is off the table as a net wash.

The only difference in this example is whether he invested the money he would have spent servicing the debt vs investing the entire chunk on day 1. Financing the property and investing the chunk on day 1 comes out substantially ahead at nearly every point in the past 2 decades.