You're investing in RE for long-term wealth, not a few hundred a month that can be wiped out with one CapEx item.

Outcome currently is a rented basement for $1,350 a month + $130 in utilities while I live in the upstairs unit.

As it stands at $1,515 month

you need to own the land or have more experience. make 100 calls to land developers nationally. use linkedin and get some experience for a month. this is a self taught business. very specialized. 

Rock that for about 12 months and add some equity and then you could refi out to conventional so as you pay it down in the future the mortgage insurance will drop off.

I was going over his financial information and saw that the guy was making over $50,000 a month and asked him what he did.

Right now, it is incredibly tough to make even a few hundred a month with traditional strategies.

The mortgage payment still has not changed 7 months later even though this was cancelled.

I'm waiting because I still haven't owned my house for 6 months.

So shift your expectations to most of the cash out and you'll be good and you'll actually start buying deals, versus people who wait for the perfect deal, spin their wheels for 6 months terminating contracts/analyzing hundreds of places, and then eventually burn out and give up.