Now today, I learned through the neighbor she currently lives next to that she hasn't kept up the house, has been problematic, and apparently had eviction notices filed by her current landlord.

I am currently living in the southwest.

 - living through construction zone sucks.  

I live in California (SoCal) and own my primary residence.

We're willing to live with this.The gray touches up very nicely.

- Is the cash flow needed for income to live my life or going to savings for something I want/need?

I have done 100s and 100s of deals there, and thousands of reno/repairs all while living OOS , happy to recommend.

We gave our previous tenant who lived in the garden unit first dibs on this unit and we gave them a deal on the rent since we had a ton of interest and likely could have gotten $1600+.Our rents may be a bit below market at this point given we haven't really raised rents in years.

Rents in the area are anywhere from $1k-$1300 a month.My plan was to get a hard money loan to get it going and fixed up and ready for tenants, then within about 6-7 months refinance the home with a traditional lender, then sit with that home for awhile until I get fully comfortable with the one house.

I am super comfortable on the engineering side but a good civil is great advice.I received a response from one of my design/build GCs yesterday.