While that is a huge jump in deductible, my thinking is that we should avoid submitting any claims anyways since that would likely result in premiums being jacked up the following year or even droppage of coverage.Does this make sense?

The key is your lawyer submitting your renovation plans to the court.  

We also currently have 2 more ADUs that we just submitted for permits to city of San Diego.  

The understanding going in is that you will be making A LOT of offers so get your affairs in order.I was initially drawn to the program because of the reduced marketing expenses: it's basically free to submit offers on listed properties.

On 2 separate occasions he let me know I was the first person to submit my order form, letting me know I would fund each loan.

We always submit lower offers but they end up selling regardless.

It's not worth the 1/2 hour  to hour trip (one way)  to go look at a potential deal, then crunching numbers, then spend another hour on all the paperwork required to submit an offer in writing on a MLS deal. 

Before submitting an offer, thoroughly investigate possible properties through due diligence.8.

Are there any additional due diligence steps we should be doing before submitting an offer? 

What I'm finding is have to stay active in submitting offers .