Regardless of your financial situation, that puts strain on your household, financially, psychologically, and emotionally.If you move forward, you and your wife should both be on board with that possibility.

Therefore the site would have non-conforming rights to have 2 single-family dwellings at the site.A building permit was recently issued for a residential alteration at the site... xxxxx"There are two separate structures on the site (one being a duplex and one being a SFH) as she mentioned but I am curious if it would it be impossible to legalized the downstairs unit now since the zoning has been tightened. 

There is a lot of inventory, people staying put and companies are laying off and tightening their belts.

Many landlords might consider that a short trip to the property to do anything from just tighten a screw to replace the faucet: quick and easy.For me, it is usually a call to my contractor and $50 - $150 for the repair for the same reasons cited above.  

To that extent I would add to James list:NW Indiana (part of Chicago metro area, but with more landlord friendly laws and taxes)Cincinnati area, all the way north to Dayton Be aware that ROI on turnkey properties is tightening up in every major market.

It’s still business as usual.I just tightened credit requirements to further weed out potential late payers.

I'm a little concerned with starting up a Partnership LLC mainly with all the formalities and potential issues that could cause a strain our friendship.   

I said it was fine, since they kind of put me on the spot, and it does look ok, though now the apartment has four different types of flooring.Our relationship has become somewhat strained during their move-out process, mostly due to her not immediately getting her way in any given situation (e.g. she tried to insist that I drop everything to come do a walkthrough with her at 6:00pm on a weekday and I refused).

That's easy to tell from their pricing when they initially put something on the market.On the other hand, they have tightened up credit to the point where owner occupants are few and far between.Now they, and Freddy Mac, are eliminating the pool of investors by reducing their max loans from 10 to 4.My prediction: if you're over 50 now, you will never again in your lifetime see the home prices where they were at the peak.

However, I seeing a lot of tightening up of inventory in the better neighborhoods for investing.