I obviously don’t have the capital for an entire portfolio nor do I have the W-2 income to support a loan of that size but don’t want to miss out on an opportunity of a lifetime!

HOWEVER: at your current size, I can think of several good reasons to be doing your own books:1.

I intend to invest in Columbus, OH, specifically within the University area.My main focus is pursuing a VA Home Loan "House Hack" in a smaller-sized duplex (2-5 br per side).

If you get them sized correctly with enough BTU’s, there’s no reason why they couldn’t solely beat the entire space.

what size of properties are you looking at? 

I particularly like the U.S. census bureau data because it covers most of the things that I like to look at when evaluating markets, such as population growth, median household income, total market size, etc.The methodology is trickier.

I made on offer on a couple houses where each house had almost exact comps (age, size, type, etc) and even on the same street (as well as other supporting comps within 1/2 mile) that were sold for $40K below the listing price of my properties.

Your mom's plan sounds reasonable to me - it is a low-cost way to pay your dad what is due to him.If you think your mom does not need such a large house, she may wish to consider down-sizing to a smaller home.

The quickest way to questimate the size of the house is to "walk" it and draw it out on a sheet of paper.

Lots of people try to "Up Advertise" their units in terms of size and renovations.