We've had them for about a year and a half and everything has been going fine besides the normal landlord stuff. 

To start - need to research deep and a lot of due diligence.High price will put you out of market, low price attract low quality tenants.

This sounds like a very small deal for commercial and a real PITA to deal with.

Though it does take slightly longer and a tad more grout, it is not significant enough to make a difference.That said, since this is a rental, white tile with white or grey grout may get nasty faster in a rental than an owner occupant home do I would stick with your larger tiles.

As far as starting an ICO i've heard it can cost $100,000+ , and a lot of money is spent on marketing the ICO. 

You should also have been and continually shopping local smaller banks and CU's working with their commercial lender on something that works, if you have some cash saved, a decent job/income, and a good credit score, you should be able to get fix and flip loans fairly easily from a small bank.

Ask for proof of funds and a SS award letter, or a bank statement that shows the amount of her SS.  

I will use an engineer for developing a site plan and a draftsman has already started on the floor plan.

        Purchased this one for $89k with a $60k Rehab $249k ARV and as with most rehabs it's taking longer and costing more...Besides that due to Hurricane Harvey and an already tight sub-market I am happy to say it looks like our ARV may be inching up over the next month or so which is GRRRREAT!

You said 9 months with this job and a few month on the job before that.