Fines and penalties can mount up by missing the date.

If you can get a sense of the pressure on the market and the scarcity of the asset you are looking to acquire, you can get a sense of whether investing now, even if it's slightly inflated, will be a strong investment over time.  

There is a little less time pressure.

Assemble furnitures, mount TVsIt seems that if I contract out all of these small projects, it can easily costs thousands of dollars.

Unfortunate, but there is no pressure like roomate pressure.It sounds like you have been treating them as one entity so keep doing that.

More on that plan another time but in short, it includes either renting or selling our current house, buying and moving into a multi-family, and taking off enough financial pressure to allow a career change which will come with a MAJOR initial pay cut.

They have a big name because they are in Chicago as well, but are priced reasonably.They are well versed in contract law and should be able to file a lien on the property and they can also assist in filing a formal report against the builder with the Florida DPPR which carries weight and can pressure the builder to do the right thing.

Job relocation pressure?

Also, contact her caseworker and explain the situation so they can provide additional pressure.

If they were older rubber hoses replace them with braded steel lines to insure they do not split under pressure.