They taught us how to put in escape clauses and make the duration until closing as long as possible so that worst comes to worst, they only lose EM.  

I'm leery of partners and don't want to get over extended. 

The longer the duration of time that it could have, the more concerned I would be.

It allows contractors to be admitted, partner with a property owner or financing partner, they may only be in for the duration of a project or as needed. 

There is usually an “extended” or “premium” policy option (it was $145 at the closing I did last week) which allows transferring ownership into a LLC or trust as long as the actual owners remain the same.

I am investing for priority in the following order:  Autopaying down principle, cashflow, appreciation.This is because I'm in it for the duration.  

Also, few people can truly work 2 full time jobs for any material duration of time, even fewer can do them both well.  

One option is to try and rent the first floor to a larger extended family and you would rent basement and first floor as 1 unit and get somewhere in between what you could rent them seperately for and what first floor would rent for...Where I have properties there are yearly inspsections that take place as there are so many "illegal basement apartments that are rented out. 

In my area I can add a simple bedroom and extend the heating system to cover if (assuming that system is already adequately sized) for about $30k.  

I understand that Zillow's algorithms use information from areas that may over-extend the boundaries of the primary area of sale to come up with an estimated sales price.