Sounds like your wife wants to be mortgage-free, which I can understand at 70+ years old, but if the new mortgage payment will be reduced enough to make life a little more comfortable, she might be in agreement.

The problem is, in a partial loss they policy would only pay on the depreciated amount reducing your claim payment.Replacement Cost is the cost, in today's dollars, to rebuild the structure with the same kind and quality. 

You will likely add all development costs to the cost basis of the project thereby reducing the overall capital gain.  

Now if its a smokin deal and the 3 to 5% is easily absorbed then its worth it but you still need cash down  .. or you need a friends and family's to help you out.leveraging up 100%  to buy rentals you want to be careful there if you don't have a bunch of cash reserves since your tying up your heloc for the purchase  leverage to the eyeballs can be great if everything plays out perfect  if not it can be highly stressful.  

I haven't read everyone's responses, so I'm surely jumping on the bandwagon.You have a responsibility to make a "good faith effort" to find a replacement renter and reduce the financial impact to your original tenant.

You can use the VA loan again, but your entitlement will be reduced as long as you still own the original property.  

We also needed to re-invest excess profit from our business to reduce our potential tax liability/exposure.

@Albertinny Colin yeah, you can kind of see where all of these are going but the ENTIRE point of the BRRRR method is to reduce the out of pocket expense you have.  

You can usually reduce that risk of a contract for deed by injecting a no encumbrances clause on the title, into the contract.

Most capital partners are going to want mortgage loan involvement to reduce cash outlay for a deal, and mortgage lenders are going to scrutinize your cash position going in, so the first step is to get your cash ducks in a row with the capital partner/investor.