But we can afford that (our current bay area home is paid off) and we have a regular income & no other debts.  

Question for Real Estate Agents:  At what point/after how much interaction with a prospective client, do you assume you have an unspoken agreement to work together? 

Nope, but I do see them regularly.

I had a place like that who wanted $800 to replace a fan motor that I would usually pay my regular guy $350.  

At the bottom you can look at references written by BP members and actually interact with the writer through BPs message system.I'll reach out with some information and a colleague request. 

You need to develop and stick to a much more stringent screening program to avoid this becoming a regular occurence.

You need more space and more safety than say, a regular single male would.

I have found several with two entrances / split levels and a common laundry space such that I could rent 2-3 BR to another family or 2-3 professionals and earn $1500-2000/mo on a $200-250k purchase while living cheaply in the other 1000 SF of the house and having limited forced interaction with the roommates/tenants. 

This was about $1,000 more than I accounted for in my insurance numbers so I'm wondering if I really need this type of policy or can I just get a regular homeowners insurance policy?

Experienced contractors regularly have to add change orders once they get started because things arent always the same once you start doing the work.