Does anyone have any suggestions on another resource I should try or should I just bite the bullet and purchase a subscription?

It will save you time and energy converting later on when you out grow your current PM software or process / systems.

Someone posting 10 bullet points isn’t going to get you to where you need to be.

At the end of the five years your the one looking down the barrel of the bullet so your the one that has to decide if it’s a good idea for you or not.

For various reasons, we've tried to press forward with him but have now hit the final straw (submitting an incomplete drawing for the meter loop to the city's energy company, delaying the completion of the job further). 

You got lucky and evidently dodged the following bullet, but did you know some huge percentage of lenders (30% or so) will not finance investment properties at all for people who do not live in a primary residence that they own?

You can know and record when, for how long, and how much energy is used by the house heating system.

I would reccomend trying to find some neighborhoods you are interested in before you come to help focus your energy.

Being a newbie sometimes people can feel that energy and Try and take advantage of you and that makes me hesitant.

Should we just bite the bullet and get the air quality test to keep him happy?