When you know the buying process, the neighborhood, and how to find the property on your own, and are ready to buy another property: How can you avoid the 2-3% buyer commission portion going to an agent on an MLS listed property, without having to get your license and pay the costs of having a license?

As a joint owner, only her share would receive a step-up, and you'd still owe capital gains tax on your portion based on the original purchase price. 

Expect to pay $5K-$10K per inspection depending on the building size.

When house hacking, you need to allocate expenses and income based on the portion of your home used for rental purposes versus personal use.

There are more coming online but I don't feel they are significant enough portion of our market to impact the single family side of things. 

The first option is a much better deal if they can secure financing, but the owner financing portion is too much headache IMO, but could work something out with a good contract. 

Depending on the size we may partner with 1-2 people so that’s another aspect I am looking into as well.  

Depending upon the size of the deal a hard money loan might eat 25% of the profit.

SFH deal with schools, jobs, paint color, yard size, etc.

Some alternatives that I have considered is purchasing a single-family home, living in it for a year as a primary and then moving and renting it out, or looking for a single-family home with a decent-sized basement and converting that into a unit.