Later on, these questions will play a role and it's not that they are unimportant now, they are just in the wrong order.

Track down the new owner of the debt to complete the short sale and wake a sleeping creditor who doesn't need to play ball; or ignore it somehow (bad title company) and the new parties in interest get foreclosed from first lien position by somebody just waiting for the opportunity to squeeze everyone.

A couple years later, I did a cash out refi on it and pulled out 133k to play with.

It is also why virtually every RE syndication has an appreciation play.  

I really enjoy playing basketball as well! 

Hey Michael, This is a loaded question as there are a lot of variables that will play a roll into the cost.

Seems like you've given a basic play by play to running the business, much appreciate!

@Jeff Rabinowitz true, but most HMLs dont play in ND.

We have discussed selling the property and rolling it into a multi-family but again feel like we may be trading a fairly hands off property with good cash flow for one that may be a bit more labor intensive and only yield marginally better performance.Any advice on how to expand our rental portfolio/maximize its performance is greatly appreciated!   

That might lead you to check the Lis Pendens (first step in foreclosure process) filings weekly or monthly and contacting those owners to see if they want to play ball!