I hope you understand this is purely about what works best for my budget.

Budget wise I would like to stay below $220,000 for the house. 

I would take a couple days and go down there (preferably with a friend...rent a U-Haul truck and go get furniture from thrift stores, antiques stores, and even buy some new stuff.

If your budget is so tight that you can't handle a small leak, what will happen when a tenant fails to pay the last month of rent and abandons the property with $6,000 in cleaning and repairs?

It's the equivalent of the guy with the expensive car and big house acting rich vs. the actual rich guy that lives in a modest house, drives an old truck, and buys his clothes at Costco.

Do you have an idea of the purchase price that fits your budget and/or what your mother is able to pay in rent?

Renting out one room has been awesome, but we also tried a live-in flip, which went way over budget and was a headache.

Can you imagine taking a couple days off work, looking for a new place, paying for new applications, putting down deposits, renting a moving truck, finding friends to help you move, paying to clean your old place, and so on to “Save” $300/yr? 

A total cost of 6.3Mn over 23 units equates to 274K/unit...this appears unbelievably low for San Diego...I'd want to see full development budget detailing hard, soft and financing costs as well as month by month projections showing construction and lease up cash flows.What's the 2.2Mn purchase price for?

Our budget is <$250K for a T2.