1.5 finish work makes my skin hair stand.

This has to be done  as part of the entitlement process.This is a snap shot from San Jose, CAResidential      Emergency residential shelter C C C C Section 20.80.500Live/workS S S  Section 20.80.740Mixed use residential/commercial C C C Note 6The "C"s mean conditional, so you would need to get a conditional use permit for residential.Many planning departments have the ability to do a "dry run" of the approval process to find out what doesn't work in your proposed plan.Consider that this sounds like a multi-unit building so there maybe a construction loan used, which converts to permanent financing when it's sold.

You could drill a small hole on the underside and let any standing water drain, then when dry, you could put the cap on.

Banks would want to pull their hair out and likely avoid financing. 

I will likely over borrow a hair to alleviate repayment strain. 

It could be a simple issue with the dry wall or could be an indication of more serious foundation problems.

Got 3 listings... money started to dry up. 

Every time something is a pain in your rear you can either engineer it out of your future experience or lose hair.

What are other landlords in the area charging for washing and drying?  

It's very cut and dried.