In San Diego county, this is limited to the city of San Diego.   

It is not a problem.There are different remedies, including soaker hoses and other remediation items, to limit soil impaction, but piers and leveling are common. 

I even have seen lenders recently with a 0% down loan that was not limited to first time home buyers. 

If so, is there a limit to how long we must hold the home as an investment property before we can move in and convert it to a primary?

Miss by a day and you are paying a hefty tax bill (income taxes plus early withdraw penalty if you are younger than 59.5 years old).

. - LLC doc sets are fairly cheap and easy to create these days (with limited assistance from lawyers) and its much much better to have that cover bases on arrangements like this - it will also fit nicely with financing options - whether you take on debt from a lender in a co-equity situation like your first plan (refinance loan to LLC post rehab?)

The person giving the reference may have very limited experience or could be completely clueless about what their manager does and how they do it.

However, our buyer's list was limited—only about 200 buyers—and after several potential buyers passed, we finally secured an offer for a $5,000 assignment fee.As we approached the closing date, our buyer began dragging out negotiations, which added to our stress.

The construction cost seems cheaper than I thought.HELOC is a good option for short term funding.. and there are max limits.. may be $400K or $500K something you should consider since it exceeds your expenses.

It is only limited to the Reno Tahoe, NV market for now.