In my local market (SE Michigan) construction costs have gone up but home prices have fallen.

Also, the opportunity cost of leaving the property vacant for a year while paying a mortgage on it and not receiving rental income is much higher than what the marginal difference in rate will cost you until you cashout refi it.

there are costs to close on the buy, costs to hold, costs to finance, and then MAJOR costs to sell, plus...

Folks tend to far underestimate the cost, and length of time, that it takes to rebuild from a disaster such as this.

BTW, PV is currently hawking a "we partner with you" scheme that will cost $9500!

Cost to build should not matter there.Look at your deals. 

The addition would cost me about $80k to convert the garage space into an additional unit.

That's $18,000 a month income and their costs are probably 1/3 that.

Unfortunately, the process has been much slower than anticipated, and we are still not ready to list the property.Additionally, the costs have significantly exceeded our initial expectations, and the property manager has not been very responsive or clear about why this is happening.

NOW THE DOWN SIDE OF SHIPPUNG SOMETHING SO MASSIVE AND HEAVY IS GOING TO COST AROUND $6K TO $10K.