Take a look at a house on grade (slab) and you will see several inches of concrete before the siding and where the house starts

Been inching too get into commercial real estate just wanna know if I should have a team first before diving in?

This house needs those beautiful hardwood floors pulled up, the floor framing redone and the whole house lifted above the current dirt level--the crawl space is less than 12 inches in depth. 

We replaced the furnace, all the flooring, base layer painted every inch with Kilz even the subfloor and it turned out great.

But then the city hired a new engineering firm and they started to condition the heck out of  us and cost us 2 years and we had to bring a 12 inch water line 1000 feet across town which entailed buying two easements to the tune of 250k.. 

so you saying...put it all the way against the wall....and then move the door(from kitchen to laundry) to the laundry room up a few inches??

If you're specifically looking in the Lubbock (or West Texas) area, I think you'll see those rates out there inching upward if they haven't already. 

Some places will do a "clear if over 3 inch" rule to avoid paying them to shovel a tiny bit of snow.

Drill the outside walls and blow them full,,,12 inches in attic.

A building inspector passes by and when drywall is up and ready to paint, yup, tear up those new walls coz he needs to inspect every inch of that electrical, plumbing and framing work you just put up.