I dont want to get all legal with them right out of the gate, get on their badside, they resist and then I have legal payments.  

It is not bullet proof, nothing is in law, but if you are doing everything right, it is highly bullet resistant.

I wonder if there are others like me or if I am just being resistant to change and trying to justify it.

Slightly more risky IMO but with the guaranty of occupying at least the residential units & my desire to open up another small business this year, I cannot resist.

My guess is you will start to see some resistance by other Investors in the market, prices will stabilize or start a slight decline and then it's up to the Micro Economics to determine if the "Hot Zones" will continue on or if the population makes a shift towards non-oil markets.

I've read that PEXa is even more resistant to bursting.

He was only trying to help and my initial reaction was to flame him......then I thanked him for his advice because I am thankful for his time to write and critique me.Some of the best teachers in my lifetime have been total A-holes and I have almost come to blows with a couple of them a few times, but I learned more from them than any nice, sweet, sensitive people could have ever taught me.  

There are specific requirements dealing with fire protection, fire resistant construction (fire walls, etc), egress, and other things. 

I just became aware of a situation where a family friend and her mother have offered to short sale their home with no regard to loss of their initial $20K down payment and damage on their credit due to the fact that they're up in age (one is over 100 years old) and they see no other recourse.How can I advise them of a different strategy to resist the temptation to give away what is essentially a really nice home that needs minimal TLC in the Oviedo FL area?

Alright, a personal ask from @Brandon Turner was too much for me to resist.