Being a one stop shop for mortgage, real estate, and property management helps us save our clients $$$ and they only have one company to deal with and one contact saves time and creates an unmatched synergy.

to your point, if you save up so that you're in a strong financial position, house hack a solid duplex in a decent neighborhood, make smart decisions, and hold it indefinitely, you'll be fine.conversely, if you have $0 and somehow start out with a risky flip, or borrow $20K and spend it all on a magic mentoring program, or buy a terrible property in a neighborhood you've never been to, you may not be fine.

Save your money.

Granted this was on plots of land I didn't pay for, and that are already connected to the city's water and sewer, so there's a lot of savings there, but I'm hoping if it turns out to be this good of a deal I can still scoop up land and keep going

It actually saves me $9 per month. 

Keep building the business and focusing on saving money. 

However to save money when she had the house built, she left the basement unfinished--it is just studs, insulation, and windows/doors, plus plumbing in the foundation.

If appreciation and scalability are your long-term goals, consider house hacking or saving for a bigger market later.

I'd like to keep savings and be able to hire out some of the work (something we have not done in the past).My thoughts are to put both into an LLC and look for investors or a business loan, and purchase and move to a new home.

I've included an example below to help illustrate this.So different lenders have different rates (which do vary even for DSCR loans) but these are factors they all consider.See example below:DSCR < 1Principal + Interest = $1,700Taxes = $350, Insurance = $100, Association Dues = $50Total PITIA = $2200Rent = $2000DSCR = Rent/PITIA = 2000/2200 = 0.91Since the DSCR is 0.91, we know the expenses are greater than the income of the property.DSCR >1Principal + Interest = $1,500Taxes = $250, Insurance = $100, Association Dues = $25Total PITIA = $1875 Rent = $2300DSCR = Rent/PITIA = 2300/1875 = 1.23If a purchase, you also generally need reserves / savings to show you have 3-6 month payments of PITIA (principal / interest (mortgage payment), property taxes and insurance and HOA (if applicable).