Also, would be interested in the age,square footage,and materials as a reason for the discrepancy between appraisal and reconstruction cost.People complain to me about reconstruction estimates on brick row homes, but to replace it at today’s material+labor prices (massively inflated and not at the bulk scale as when they threw up blocks of them) as well as bring it up to code (assuming Ordinance and Law Coverage) really is different than market value.

Wife is the surgeon breadwinner.

In fact, other sources suggest that there are ONLY certain categories (at least in the State of Illinois) who have legal reasons to break the lease and are exempt from liability to follow through with their commitment as far as honoring the lease and NOT incur any penalties at the same time: 1) active members of the military, who must change their station;2) the lease itself being illegal contact (ours was prepared by a Real Estate Attorney, so we are actually in great shape as far as that goes, and we own our property, therefore, have full legal right to rent it out, and full reconstruction was performed up to all existing codes, with all required permits - these are conditions our mentioned above tenants moved in - to EVERYTHING BRAND NEW!

Reconstructing that wall was simple stuff and not one that I felt needed the litany of opinions that the city would require, mainly in light of it being adding instead of removing support.However, it's completely a personal call there. 

Some other resources for you: White Coat Investor, Physicians on FIRE on FB, and Wealth Formula podcast (host is a former surgeon and now full-time investor) 

@Aubrey Manning So, you're just a brain surgeon looking to get into the complicated world of real estate investing.

This is a very personal question.If you're a heart surgeon or attorney earning $300 an hour, it makes sense to earn money doing your primary job and hiring the plumber at $80 an hour to fix the leaking sink or the $45 carpenter to install a new door.

This year was worse than most due to two units catching fire and needing heavy reconstruction and placing new tenants into both of them (which due to Covid took more time than usual - no large open houses, we have placed a total of 3 tenants in units during Covid and they averaged over 20 hours of showings including the no shows). 

I'm not getting surgery from the surgeon that doesn't have any business, I know I'll need to get on a schedule to work with the best and can't just walk in

I had the home completely reconstructed and added a bathroom.