It is prudent for the seller to know enough about the market to properly analyze the improvements and their effect on the value of the property.From the buyers side, only put down an earnest money deposit that you can afford to lose.

We also time effective dates so that if they choose to move (for month to month tenants) they are doing so in warm weather given that we are in Minnesota

Additionally, Cincinnati was aggressive in their QOZ selection so their may be opportunities in those neighborhood which would also be tax effective, if applicable.

What is the best way to structure these agreements to minimize the effect of this? 

The wording you're looking at is probably something like - "if you purchase a property that was shown to you by the agent, or brought to your attention by the brokerage firm during the time period that you had a buyer agency agreement - you will have to pay that brokerage a commission, even it that agreement is no longer in effect."

Otherwise (you have no ductwork) minisplit is the only cost effective solution.

You're unlikely to see many of your tenants, on average, suffer from debilitating effects of COVID, should they be vaccinated, as well.

I’m doing a cash-out refi on a 2-unit home and am dealing with a tenant who has only paid half of November’s rent, we are in the process of dealing with this tenant but if we go further with scheduling the appraisal, will this have any effect on that process?

LA is going to get the opposite effect.

We want to try the “snowball effect” and to grow portfolio.