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 .

.- Huge car buff who loves to go to the local meets and interact with other car enthusiasts.

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

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 New England. 

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

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

As the representative for the tenant, I oversaw a remarkable six-month renovation project on a 15,000SF project that revitalized the property from an uninhabitable church to a stunning showcase car dealership.

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.