However, again managing my father's 4plex has been.... very, very easy compared to what I hear on these forums.

In the end, due to the "great news" they found, they ended up not installing an overhead sewer line or digging out front to attach the downspouts to the mainline in front of our house, but instead, redirected some of the existing piping and doing an edited version of the proposed plan that more heavily used the intact mainline under the house.The end result has seemed to be a resolution to the problem (so the ultimate purpose of the work was achieved), but with what I would estimate to be about 50-70% of the total proposed work.

The purpose of the notice is to protect you and your asset(s) from any sort of penalty."

How hard would it be to replace the location and rent they are currently paying with another comparable unit?

And pick up some negative MN state income for tax purposes  if I happen to make any money in the state in the future. 

In that event it is a disregarded entity and you and your wife are seen as the taxpayers for purposes of 1031 anyway. 

However, the profit treated as capital gain would not count as income for loan qualification purposes, thus lowering his income (of which the profit was a significant part of income for the year).

Than compare and see for yourself. 

PMI =0.0085*950,000/12=$672 monthly.HEL 80-15-5 scenario)  HEL closing cost on 150,000 = approximately $6000.  20yr at 6.25% = $1096 monthlyThe calculation above is kind of comparing apples with oranges. 

I have been looking for quite a while and haven't seen any properties come up inside the belt line where the numbers make sense compared to the higher property values.