I will certainly explore this option. 

Ready to explore everything this industry has to offer!

And its lots less expensive to give her $300 than to spend my life trying to make her live at a different level of cleanliness than she has for decades, or to evict her for her uncleanliness.Karma does eventually even things out and I do not want the reputation as THAT landlord who took advantage of a long term tenant.Also, if you mess with that long term tenant the old landlord may be found and write something for court showing that she paid a $1000 deposit, you never know what will happen, but likely the old landlord was happy with her as a tenant and possibly friendly.

Patrick Grayson of StolCo design has good reputation (and a member of CIREIA) and may not charge anything to quote on a property if you are serious (even if you are not in contract).

I plan to operate them via a reputed 3rd party management company which has extensive experience.

Anyone know the answer or able to recommend a reputable lender?  

I also feel like it's a reputable company that I can trust.

I am reaching out to ask if anyone has explored avenues of building or remodeling a structure into a Cohousing situation here in SD?

You could explore "USPS Street Addressing Service," the UPS Store has one, or you could use one of the virtual office services that have a physical location.

We feel that we have been given a great opportunity to get started investing in real estate with this chunk of money, but what other options, if any, can we explore so we don't need to sell our brand new home (which took 15months to build!).