I'm also relieved that I hired a local real estate attorney to help create a county-specific, legal MTR agreement for our house-hacking situation.

I suspect a legal, permitted garage conversion ADU will cost ~6 times your estimate if hands off and probably at least 4 times your estimate if you do the finishes yourself.  

The good thing about househacking a legal multifamily unit is that lender allows you to use the vacated units of 75% market rent as an income to offset the potential current mortgage.

Is it a legal 3-family on the city card?

I don't think it will be as simple as trying to just undo what the last owner did; you're going to need legal descriptions of each lot and that generally requires a survey. 

I'd be surprised if the way they are teaching & doing the lending is legal. 

I am starting to worry it’s fraud and will be seeking legal counsel on next steps . 

When you're on a temporary visa, especially without a clear path to permanent residency, the risk involved can be substantial—both financially and legally.

Now, each lease will be unique, so you can't apply this across all commercial leases, but commonly, LL is responsible for exterior and structural components, while tenant is reponsible for any interior items.How to best explain this: honestly, I would request the tenants have their own legal counsel review their respective leases.  

sounds completely legal, maybe my friend is crazy and he wants to lose $900,000 There is transfer tax and property tax.