Once you have a firm grasp of your goals, you'll be better positioned to make informed decisions regarding the location of your investment properties.

Are you you looking on joining a real estate firm soon?

My firm currently has a buildable quarter acre infill lot available, but I'm mainly trying to gauge builders buying criteria, price and overall thoughts on building in that area.

Not everyone is a believer in paying for planning so you should research to see if it's a fit and find the right individual and firm to serve you and your family.     

Should I firmly tell her what to do or just let her decide and go with the flow?

Don't you think there would be thousands of law firms selling it? 

DSCR loans/lenders should uniformly take the lower of actual or in-place as a pretty firm industry standard underwriting guideline. 

We as a firm have investors working with us who have short term rental properties all over the US for example big and small.Finding a real estate-focused tax professional and one who can help with advisory and grow with you would be my suggestion to focus your efforts on finding.

., and my cost seg firm was able to hit 30%, so I got to write off about ~300K against my W2.There will be depreciation recapture when you sell, but it is a lower tax rate (25%) than what you are at currently, I assume. 

Once they realize that you are firm and willing to walk away, then you control the deal by giving the buyer the opportunity for them to purchase their own appraisal.