Bear with me - the question is specific to my situation, and I'll attempt to keep it brief.

Add non-porous soil.5.

Your budget has no bearing what a contractor will quote you for work you request.  

After discussions with the local building inspector about different options we decided to decomission it in place (basically filling it with concrete) and building a second wall in front of the fire box, which caused us to loose about 5 inches of living room space.We also opened up the tiny kitchen into the living space by removing the load bearing wall in the center of the house and installing a structural LVL beam in the attic to handle the load.

They are from the DFW area and know the soils, etc.  

A brand new home rented for one year may have expenses as low as 20% but that number has no bearing on long term expenses which is what the 50% rule applies to. 

I was using Google Earth to get my bearings on where each was and what they looked like, and not many were really that great to be honest.

A little about myself: I grew up in Orange County, graduated from UC Berkeley (Go Bears!)

Not saying this is the case, but it bears watching.  

I had one of my all time bear renters move out and I only raised his rent once $25 when he moved to another unit, but when he finally left I easily rented his place for $50 more a month.