I would strongly encourage anyone reading this post who has used that site as guidance in the past to do the same.My normal practice when determining market rent is to use a range of factors, that include GoSection8 data, the local housing authority's published rent matrix, information from Rentometer, from Zillow's rent estimator, and the MLS.

You normally pay a percentage to a PM for property management each month.

The above is kind of how it's always been here in the SF Bay Area, word on the street is that we've been exporting our normal listing price practices to the rest of the country since March of 2020.

In my opinion its a no brainer if the expenses get to be written off like I would just do as a normal rental property, I could do all renos and write them all off!

The Return on Equity (ROE) has gone from really great to what I consider normal over the last 10 years as values have skyrocketed, rent hasn't kept up at the same pace, and loans have been paid down.  

I deal with this all the time it is normal business in California. 

I"m NOT a CPA but I do know the following.If she takes the money out of a qualifies plan, she will likely get taxed at a 10% penalty plus whatever her normal earned earned income tax rate is, assuming she does not have another way of offsetting that, like being a real estate professional.If she invests with you using an SDIRA, she will pay no tax for putting the money in your deal, but if you use leverage, will likely pay UBIT taxes.

With a LO you get a tenant with skin in the game ($9k option consideration in my case)  and a commission-free sale with no vacancy. 

Trying to figure out what the normal course of action for something like this is, since at this point we don't know the owner of the other building.

Costs are normal, including appraisals, standard fees, and escrow account set-ups.