There are any number of times where alimony can be cut off, leaving her with insufficient income to cover rent.

You have considerably less wall space, and trying to fill furniture into that one big space is often awkward resulting in a lot of wasted space that does not really do anything.And while these open floorplans are often promoted as "family friendly" I have come to the conclusion that they are a double edged sword in that respect.

We can do some of the legwork ourselves to cut cost - we have flipped houses and built two new homes before but we had the misfortune of starting in 2005 and ending very abruptly in 2008. 

Almost no body told us about Root barrier, which are simple digging  about 2-3 into the ground, near your foundation to cut invasive  tree roots. 

Or do we just cut our losses and keep her deposit?

I’m not trying to cut costs, as we all know how important this can be.

Cutting your losses even if the 1:1 is a cheaper solution today is missing the forest for the trees. 

I don't wanna waste time if I know they aren't gonna qualify, but I don't want to be accused of violating fair housing laws here

You can also cut your costs and leverage for other deals.

Looking all over the country is just going to be either overwhelming or waste a lot of energy