We believe it will increase the value of the house and there's plenty of equity to refinance and recoup the money spent; but we're trying to save that money to reinvest into something else. 

That said, I missed plenty of deals in this stage of my investing career although I didn't necessarily look at it that way.

That's the first order of business...and $30k is plenty of money

To be fair there are plenty of realtors who are also investors, but the vast majority of realtors aren't.

I think a big component that you can & need to nail down is cost of constructing on a site with plenty of granite.

There are plenty of professionals on these forums on BP in general that could give you guidance.

Sad to see them go & we always got invited to their annual BBQ. 

Plenty of room.

However, it looks like your structure gives you plenty of room and time to execute your business plan.

There are plenty of lower priced houses in the area that will have a much lower mortgage payment than what I had in 84.