If I were in your and/or your mother-in-laws shoes, I would go to a local bank and use the free and clear house to secure a $150K+ line of credit. 

I also wouldn't touch hilltop with a 10' pole. struggled. old homes, over budget renovations, lots of issues. realtors push people here since it's the only place cheap houses close to downtown can be good but homes are 1900-1920.

Just bought 3 houses last week from a builder. 

This is partially because we lose the OTA protections and partially to make sure we follow the same procedures for all residents (fair housing laws are important to follow). 

Also if you are selling, hopefully your agent has advised you but good practice to have a vacant unit to open the buyer pool to owner-occupied buyers/house hackers.

I bought 14 houses basically for free by harvesting the equity in my houses by doing 5 cash out refis.

Tiny House Dreaming and Tiny Home Projects are currently working with a variety of investors on Pocket Communities and stacked Tiny Homes.

Buying a new primary residence has nothing to do with the capital gains exclusion.It is when you go to sell the new house down the line you'll run into a problem.

I took my thrashing as you know in 2020  I do know some of my clients that sell turnkey have been keeping the houses and doing BRRRR instead of selling them to investors that part of the market has slowed signficantly for many in that industry.

If there was a house of interest listed it was get there same day and make a strong offer to even have a chance, this doesn't seem to be the case at this moment.