Honestly, I am relatively new to the real estate industry.

However, I do see a house of primary residence in my relatively near future 1-5 years unless I move cities/change jobs before then. 

My intentions are to purchase single-family homes from motivated sellers and hold them as rentals in a relatively small geographic area (Edwardsville, IL). 

If you figure out the value, in relation to your plan, then you will know whether to buy it or pass: rent it out or house hack?  

If you want to email me the address of your rental, I'd gladly give you my opinion of its present value, relative to your purchase price of $162,000 5 years ago. 

I'm a relatively new RE investor, and new to the BP community as well.

A standard demonstration related to this is dropping a chunk of concrete into water -- it will bubble for a pretty long time as it takes on water, then when you take it out the reverse occurs.Can't really tell -- are you saying this is new construction?  

There are no financial compliance issues with financing from related family.There are financing issues when you finance to an unrelated owner occupied party, Dodd-Frank is not the only issue.

I live in the Phoenix area and I've been looking for a 2-4 unit property here with the intentions of buying it through FHA and living in it for a year or two and then moving out.I'm running in to a number of problems:1) There are not many 2-4 unit properties in the Phoenix area relative to areas like the midwest and/or east coast and for the most part the multi-family homes here seem to be located in less than desirable areas. 2) It seems to be very difficult to find one that will cash flow.

I think the umbrella is a relative bargain (and as you note probably lower risk for insurer as the underlying coverage may handle many claims) for the price (I use  RLI, and maybe your solution is as simple as a lower cost provider)...In my very short time seeing inside of insurance defense, I would see the guys that worked for the major insurers (who fought claims on a daily basis) up their own policies, so that was enough for me..