The east side will most likely remain very cheap and poor since the huge influx of people coming in all want to live in the limited English Neighbourhoods. 

You need to do some in-depth studying regarding screening tenant applicants if you do not know who to use to screen.

That's great, but you've just done THREE things that work against you: you've eliminated yourself from the radar of many buyers, you've limited the marketing on your property, and you've positioned yourself as a TARGET -- because you know who loves FSBO listings?

To get a variance, you'll need drawings (a survey, a site plan, and architectural drawings) along with an application (that will probably require calculations) and some application fees.

But the property would never do that because of its design and limitations, so in order to make money, I'd have to either create more space/more bedrooms, or wait for the area to improve.

So far its been a slightly less headachy process than going through the application for my house, less paperwork, documentation, questions, etc. 

A lender gets <$400 fee spending 30 hours process your application on a 30 years loan? 

Expensify is hands down the best receipt handling application i have ever seen. 

I am curious to see if the flippers here think it is worth it to make sure everything is done right to avoid wasting time negotiating credits in escrow or if you think you should do what you can to limit expenses?

Personally I do not like drug users or abusers of alcohol and I would reject their application regardless.