When a tenant moves out, transfer the deposit back to Checking so it's ready to apply towards expenses or refund the Tenant.If you end up with excess funds in the Checking account, I recommend you transfer it to a third account designated explicitly for future investments.

Meanwhile your peers who own $100K houses in Detroit (no knock on Detroit, just used for illustration purposes) feel the need to create a convoluted web of entities and ignore most of what I shared.

It is important to check with your state’s regulatory authority to understand the specific requirements.2.

If a tenant signs a year lease and only stays 4 months, I incur excess vacancy with the additional turnover.

Having engineering plans and calculations can streamline the permitting process, as many local authorities require this documentation for ADU conversions.I can't give an invoice estimate as I am not well versed in how engineers price their work, but I would assume something around $5,000 for engineering services on a project of this size.

That seems excessive.

Attorney fees were estimated to be in excess of $12,000 per property.

There's no margin for error on timing the turnover, let alone getting a tenant who causes excessive damage or needs to be evicted.    

Excess Liability:  There are non-standard (excess/surplus lines) options to cover after the current $2mm umbrella is exausted. 

Perhaps you can call the local housing authority for some direction as they too would want you to do things appropriately.Can you ask the sellers to get them out before closing?