I am looking to increase my cash flow to support my family and wanted to learn more about real estate investing.

Debt increases risk AND reward.

It just increases your exposure.Not sure how you do NOT have an insurance policy and still have a mortgage...We've got plenty of threads, pretty much daily, about the LLC question...  

I've done quite a bit of market research when trying to standardize our pricing, and these are the market rates I've found.

@Nicholas Arcidiacono online rental applications are the standard now.

When I was buying, concerns were the quality of new construction, the timeline fluctuations and cost increases.

Fees (including points) are obvious, but lenders also can (and usually do) bump the rate a wee bit to make a "yield-spread premium" or "back-points" on the deal to further increase their profit. 

For instance, spend $10k on a kitchen remodel, increase your value by $8.5k (or whatever, but it's always less than the expense).I figure I must be missing something, because BiggerPockets is full of investors talking about their contractors, etc.

Is general industry standard to have 3-4 months PITI reserves in bank after closing?

Most likely no tax difference, unless the annual interest amount approaches your standard deduction of $12k ish.All being relatively equal, I'd take the path of fastest removal of her from title.