If the answer doesn't involve an actual "show and tell" session, you can bet they will leave you hanging when you have actual money on the line. 

Your best bet if you want to rent in SC is to focus on 2-4plexes.

Is my new tax base the value of the home at the time of conversion - No, it’s lesser of FMV or your adjusted basis (so basically your purchase price plus improvement) or will i get some type of credit lessening the Capitol gains hit because the prop was my pri res for 10 years?

Most good contractors have experience in current building codes and have made adjustments with the current codes to keep their costs down.I speak from about 30 years of construction decisions in the Dallas Texas area. 

If you post what info you have, I bet you will get a few different ways to analyze it and then you take what you want and adapt it to your needs.

Cap rates will adjust from market to market based on a number of factors that have already been brought up by others.

In this case, your best bet is to still reach out directly to the institution that owns the loan to seek someone up the ladder that has the authority to make a deal. 

I am evaluating several areas in Austin, but I would like to look at data to help me evaluate which of these areas are surest bets for the types of year-to-year, room-by-room renters I'm looking for.

Look at 2008.Looks like a good rough calculation; however, your purchase price itself at closing does not necessarily reflect your basis as you have to adjust for the applicable closing costs and credits.

You can normalize it up/down if the units are bigger/smaller/nicer but that's just an adjustment on the given PPD in an area.