I like the carriage style garage doors though.Congrats on stepping back up to the plate after the first flip throwing you so many curve balls!

Currently, the house we reside in has a carriage house out back, that is a free-standing unit.

I can absolutely see both sides...a potential compromise might be if you could find a SFH with a detached carriage house or garage apartment?

His carriage and demeanor make me apprehensive and when I had the chance to meet him and asked questions about income / profession he was a touch evasive and contradicted himself (mentioning an engineering career, then being retired, then working in retail all in the same window).

Detached Garages and Storage Buildings: Convert them into a carriage house, rent them separately, use them yourself or tear them down.

But what you can do is rent out a basement apartment, attic apartment, or carriage house. 

I've tried multiple times over the years to get in touch with the owner of the garage unit (it's a carriage house with people living there), and have never gotten a phone call or response back.

@Travis Hewlett If things work out on the seller financing side and you pick up the property, you may want to consider a carriage suite on the garage - if it's detached. 

I have a client that built a carriage house in a historic neighborhood called victorian village. and he did it for less than $50k when he had quotes well into the $125k range.

We just bought a house with a carriage house in Colorado Springs and the short-term rentals in both units are killing it.