The question then is, how does one scale? 

@John MerrittSacramento is a unicorn market when it comes to rent growth and appreciation, because you have a large population moving here from the Bay Area where rents and home prices are 2-3x as much for comparable properties.

My primary concern is that we are not handing large sums of cash to someone who, despite great referrals, runs abroad with our money. 

(Total toilets are 5, showers 2, bath tubs 2 and 1 large vanity, 2 small vanity and a simple sink.)We want to create an opening in a non load bearing wall.  

I've fixed pretty much everything unless it was over my skill set (replacing capacitor on A/C system, for instance; landlord told me when I moved in it was okay to repaint or whatever as long as it improved the house), my neighbors love me - they've told him so; I've resodded the yard twice (FL grass sucks with a dog), had the landscape crew redo the trees in front so they look good, replanted flower beds (perennials), power washed the house every year after wet season ended, ensured the pest control worked...The BUT part ...As a sole practioning consultant (pre-IPO weakness remediation, large financial systems implementations, global audit recommendations for SEC registrants, etc.) at times during the last 3 years things have been sink or sink lower credit wise and the ID theft didn't help (apparently, I bought a car in GA and own some property in TX).

I currently have an offer on a place that's had no interest/offers up to now but I building a large contingency to account for everything seen and unseen

Very large lot allows for many options on rebuild, to expand horizontally and vertically.

In the past, I've explored "up and coming" markets by pulling US census data and mapping areas with large population growth.

If it is not legal, it will not scale.

I owe $230k on a 30yr fixed at 3.5% with about 23 years left to go.My concerns are: losing a great rate and paying taxes/commission on a large chunk of the equity.