@Eric Wiinanen I will give you the answer here but keep in mind I won't be your lender....so you'll really need to speak to your lender on this.  

Prices have gone up a bit over last year but relatively speaking the increase here in SF Bay Area is much lower than other places.

Tell them after speaking with your attorney, you were advised that they owe you 100% refund based on the circumstances.

Ultimately you'll be fighting to reclaim the rent owed for the time their "stuff" is spent in your unit.Start the eviction process when they're late on the next months rent......but I'd also just speak with an attorney asap

What are the best terms and rates I should request when I speak to a hard money lender?

Do you think it would be appropriate to speak to the council about it without actually going through the process of submitting an approval first to just get an idea on which side they lean to? 

And you've got to pay attention to those types of catches so to speak this business has been around for many years and at the end of the day those types of things are few and far between so you got to be careful of who the snake oil salesman or saleswoman is as a general rule these types of strategies are out there can be executed and done.So i'm not saying they can't be done it's just that they're few and far between for the average joe out there so the options out there are go with traditional type of financing i.e fannie mae freddie mac fha your normal mortgage lending and financing right that's one avenue where you're going to get your lowest interest rate with your least amount of money.

I've read many many many articles speaking to acquisition fees, and management fees, and built in equity percentage just because.

I apologize if there’s typos or anything.I’m writing this as I’m going to bed after speaking with the girly about it and thinking it over for a few hours and still not making sense to me.

I think I speak for 99% of us when I say I wish I were thinking the way you're thinking now, back when I was 19!