Currently, we own a residential property in Woburn Massachusetts that we use as our primary residence.

My biggest thing would be to make sure the money you put into the basement would equal on the value/equity. 

But I will be doing something with that equity.

The interest will be higher than a HELOC on an owner occupied residence.

I agree with you that it would be best to have both the company on the lease in addition to the tenant, we're just having a difficult time figuring out how to do that because of the language on our lease- It just used the word "tenant", so we're not sure how to clarify one party is financially responsible, while the other party will actually be residing there (tenant)-

Owner builders can pull permits if its a personal residence but not investment properties

I have only owned one investment property (residence turned rental) which I sold at a great time, and now looking to get back into long-term SFH or multifamily investing more seriously to diversify my investments (I'm almost entirely in equities now). 

At the end of the day sure they can try and run the job online but maybe end up with 5k or so more in equity 100% irrelevant.

  * Water- if you are not billing it back to the residents most utilities have a base rate then a usage charge over the base usage allowance. 

Also the ability to pull out equity, improve assets to force appreciation and from improving cash flow over time.