Local government is landlord friendly and taxes and cost of living are lower.

I live in New England. 

I am contemplating on my current project on wether  I should make the current apartment a 3 bedroom but sacrifice the living room space or make it a 2 bedroom with a bigger living room space .

For example Drywall living room could have an input for sq ft and you could get a base line estimate. 

We live in a suburb, no duplexes/triplexes here, only SFH, THs, and condos.

We live in 1 unit and will rent the others.The issue at hand is that one tenant has/had a verbal contract with the previous landlord (they are family). 

I’m helping her out because she lives out of state and obviously can’t open in person an escrow account.

I live in Truckee, and I can tell you that nobody will stay in Reno if they are coming here to Ski.

Just make sure you're not breaking any city rules when splitting the house.In most cases, you won't face issues if you split a house as long as you live there, but it's best to confirm with local regulations to be sure.

For my 2nd home that my wife and I currently live in, we were able to obtain a 5.5% rate through the builder DR Horton for a new home.