Aside from technical skill and experience, you also need a steel gut and a high degree of emotional intelligence to ride out volatility.

Doing all that I can to give my family all they deserveFinancial Freedom and continued Financial Intelligence

Not leveraging your portfolio, either via a refinance or more indirectly in an equity raise, is a poor financial decision, from a tax standpoint as well as a growth standpoint.The only reason it doesn’t make sense is if your investment property is fundamentally a loser to begin with, or if you do not have financial intelligence and think it’s a good idea to pay off your loans 100%.

You can't show a phone call to a lawyer to aid in intelligent decision making. 

(C) The would-be seller is a very patient, intelligent, and kind person.

However, to be successful one needs a much greater degree of knowledge, experience and intelligence.  

I honestly have no idea how to intelligently work these.

You could expand it as you mentioned either sooner or later, and if a developer sees potential then there is likely profit to be made in addition to practicality by expanding the footprint if done intelligently and cost effectively.4)You keep the house as a rental and purchase your next larger home.

It is extremely important that you know the basics of real estate as agents learn for their examinations with the exception of state real estate commission related materials.70%, I'm sure after being here for years on this site, of the questions asked on BP have the answer in the basics of a formal education in RE.Can you, as a newbie (or more most here with years in doing what they do) imagine being able to give an intelligent answer to 70% of all the questions asked on this site after receiving about 2 weeks of training?

There have been no tactics employed by me to weaken his resolve or emotional intelligence.