I'm definitely not trying to steer the appraiser, since of course that's not allowed.  

Another option: allow it to be free-standing with more, properly designed/installed support posts.

 I use Expensify to track my expenses and the app allows you to snap a photo, categorize, and label expenses and then you can just send your accountant (or yourself) an expense report at the end of the year.

I find that investing in Real Estate allows my creative side to emerge, especially when structuring a contract or finding valuable resources for financing real estate properties.Currently, I am purchasing as much real estate as possible in this (historically) saturated real estate market.

This year, our C corp had a very good year and we have a decent enough windfall which will allow me to take out the capital I would need to invest in my first real estate property (properties).  

Also as Dave mentioned, the easiest way to bring in a partner is to acquire the new property in a tenants-in-common (TIC) legal structure, which would allow for the 1031 exchange.  

If your doing bank conventional financing you can get around 9-11% ROI when factoring in vacancy, repairs allowances. 

They are hands-off, institutional grade real estate investments, and they allow you the option to diversify.

in other words, would it be better to pay cash for 4 properties now and continue to buy with cash flow as it comes in, or would it be smarter to finance 8 (or any number larger than 4 from my prior question) and allow the cash flow to pay them off. 

My lease says I allow 5 days to correct contract breaches.