The home was initially a 3 bedroom 1 bath with a massive unpermitted enclosed den attached.

@Teri B.My 2 cents is that trying to grasp the very complicated tax law on your own is a massive and usually unnecessary undertaking.

They can be the difference between success and massive failure/litigation. 

Most of the brokerage reports provide backward looking data that suffers from selection bias, survivorship bias and cherry-picking i.e. massive statistical issues.It's better to have a deep focus in a few attractive markets and develop relationships there as opposed to spraying and praying.I would seek to understand the investment risk/return profile and match it with your capital needs.

(We dont need a lot of space at all, but also dont want to live anywhere unsafe).Any insight/ideas would be massively appreciated!

Warren Buffet must be dumb to invest in stock only then.

It takes courage to address these massive failures.

For individuals a lot has to do with time, annual income they make, current age,etc.I do not see a massive rise in cap rates relative to interest rates rising.

I've been known to take on massive amounts of "risk" that I don't think is risky at all. 

There is a lot of data out there to support the idea that over half of the markets recovery since 2010 has been due to buybacks and not true growth. tldr: price of needs vs wants, steady oil prices, limited disposable income, and lack of long term spending on RD don't bode well for  massive across the market growth.