We are wanting to buy out the kids for their half, take some cash out, and then use it as a rental property.  

This may take the form of a second deed of trust if the funds are being used as a down payment on an investment property with a conventional loan.

Cash Value Takes TimeMany IULs (Index Universal Life policies) may take 7–10 years before you can borrow a meaningful amount of cash value.

Therefore, working with a single real estate agent doesn't make much sense as it will limit you to his/her very limited inventory and he/she might have as main objective to sell a property to you take advantage of your lack of knowledge of the market.

By working together, we could take on bigger and better deals.

Quote from @Simon Walker: Quote from @Andrew Syrios: Could you "split the difference" so to speak and go back to work for yourself but limit the number of clients you take on so you only need to work 20 or so hours a week?

Quote from @John Zhang: If I buy a house and use as long term rental, take bonus depreciation.

And most importantly, take action.

It takes a while to get off the ground.

So, I would be very conservative (for your standpoint) on the researched estimate.I would do what I suggested above, then if the tenant takes you to small claims court you explain to the judge the legislative time restrictions you were under in order to come up with an accurate repair expense.This is yet another example of how "tenant protection" laws, in practice, end up hurting the tenant in the end.