Banks often have higher fees and less favorable rates, while online services like Wise offer more competitive options.As @Ryan Konen mentioned, other alternatives include Revolut for multi-currency transfers and OFX for large transfers without limits.

Like I mentioned it is a flip and is currently sitting vacant on the market waiting to be sold.

You can build from that.I also recommend waiting until you are married before you do.

I forgot to mention, it's meant to be turnkey so they manage it, and their split is 10% of gross income before all costs and debt service etc. 

As I mentioned earlier, she was very enthusiastic and I was able to build great rapport with her because we actually have a mutual friend in that neighborhood.

The areas you specifically mentioned have seen growth due to those factors (Buckeye - industrial expansion; Surprise - TSMC plant relocated). 

For the most part its just health and safety items, which are items we should have remedied anyways.As someone else mentioned, biggest thing to avoid is having the house tagged as vacant which the city will do if it sits empty for too long (handful of months, grass not cut, etc).

Looked at condos taht we could possibly make work.Would this be something that we should consider or just continue saving and waiting out the next two years?

It's not impossible to find, but you may not recover ALL your cash in the refi and may have to wait an added 1-2 years to get it all out. 

You would want to check local zoning to make sure you could build more than one as a lot goes into that beyond just being close to plumbing, electric, and gas.When you mention "a lot goes into that beyond just being close to plumbing, electric, and gas," what are the top things people tend to overlook when preparing to build ADUs?