There are several ideas like tiny homes in LA that still rents, but not sure if they really sell.

Most lenders ding you a tiny bit (& it is very tiny) if you DON'T have an escrow account. 

Thanks @Wesley Williams for the intro@Jonathan Smith there's a lot you can do with just a little marketing.You could call the basement an "office" or a "den" and that's something you could market for higher rent.Also, I've written in detail about an "Inn Keeper" profit center where the landlord joint ventures with the tenant to host Airbnb/VRBO guests. 

We also require them to give us a copy of all lisc and insurance information.We also realize that we live and die by having good vendors, we hold vendor appreciation parties when they all come to our office and we provide food and drinks and thank them for the hard and great work they have done. 

(We have a specific person dedicated to ordering the appraisals in our office to speed up the process) and the payment request is sent to you.

We are getting ready to build a tiny home in West Asheville as well, feel free to reach out if you are interested in some of the outlying areas towards Bryson City and Sylva.

But the city zoning office is a good place to start.

@Rick Chowtax properties can be a great interest income or turn into deeds, talk to tax offices and do your research...

If it's too confusing to try and work with the county's office right now you could always just ask another local REI.  

I wanted to purchase a small commercial office building and was rejected and loan officer suggested they were concerned about what to do about current properties because of my age.