As I indicated I have had numerous offers to pay less, and initially I was seriously considering switching to get something probably in the 5 to 6 percent range.

While it is possible to find a decent contractor through these sites, the professional, quality driven contractor will have a strong, local network of satisfied clients and fellow tradesmen to funnel work their way.I've found that many of the individuals relying on HomeAdvisor leads are doing so because their work doesn't speak for itself or their clients have not been telling everyone they know about how well their awesome new renovation turned out.

I will definitely connect with individuals in my area.  

Just from reading some of the discussions and posts, I am proud to be such a wonderful community of individuals helping one another.

This four unit home welcomes families and individuals to a 3bedroom 1 bath, two 1 bedroom 1 bath and a studio apartment with a full bathroom.

@Jeffrey Trudeau No those properties are on separate parcels of land with their individual tax id.

It includes all major assets & liabs, inc some pers prop that has value (or is individually insured) & I would consider selling to fund new found opportunities or if there was a major emergency requiring a change in budgeting/liquidity.My PBS is currently three pages long, broken into sections w/ sub totals to assist in analysis:AssetsReal Prop (Assessed, Purchase/Rent data, 2-3 free online providers like Redfin, then averaged.)Personal Property (Cars, Art, Hard Assets, things not in an account or "foggy" daily market value)Cash Accounts (ie funds w/ access not limited by age, Banks, Brokerages, CVLI, prepaid taxes,large pending incomes like insurance settlements & reimbursements owed to me.)MineSpouseCo-AccountsRetirement Accounts (or anything where access to the value is age restricted)MineSpouseBusiness 1 (Net number carried over from separate business records)Business 2 (List as needed)Liabilities (Would section these out too if I had enough to justify it)Listed in order of assets above if tied to such, mortgages, HELOC, etc.General liabilities listed next, largest to smallest.Net Worth CalculationThen I include several lines of totals; subtotal of amount available for conversion to REI, ratios & simple measures like mo / mo & trailing 12 mo avg % & $ return.My FI goal is over the long term to average at least 1% mo / mo gain in net worth.I have found this to be best for me for several reasons:I have a hard time visualizing a set $ amount as a goal because my amount required to retire would then seem too big to tackle.

Let me address your concerns individually...1. 

Tax treatment gets a little complicated when two individuals buy a multi-unit property and one of them occupies a unit. 

Pragmatically what happens is you expand the Fannie cap to 20 by putting each property/loan only in one spouses name (we can thank feminism for that, once upon a time women didn't have individual credit, only EITHER joint with their dad or joint with their husband).