May I suggest that you get somebody who has good credit, and a past good relationship with their last landlord. Also somebody who can afford to pay rent. Because if you don't--you can have a nightmare under your roof really fast. That is especially true if your unit is not built to the current code. You want to look for somebody that will not move extra people in that you have not okayed. You want somebody that is not planning on partying a lot. Those are Your goals. Don't look at what a tenant might appreciate, because you might guess wrong. Most landlords start out very idealistic--that rubs off real fast.

This debate pops up from time to time. On our land, we would have had to bring in enormous amounts of fill to build on a slab, or a crawl space would have been 6' tall, so a basement (walk-out) was the obvious choice. I like the advantages of a basement, and after living in slab homes for 30 years, I prefer the 'give' of a suspended floor. If I lived in a area where tornadoes were a possibility, I'd want a basement. Our basement and main floor are ICF. The basement is very usable, as we have windows and insulation. I went to a lot of trouble to properly waterproof and otherwise control surface water, so the basement is dry. Due to the ICF construction and our relatively mild SC climate, our basement ranges from 60 F. in the winter to 73 F. in the summer with no HVAC at all. Thanks to modern building science (assuming your builder actually follows the guidelines) you can have your choice in most instances. I'm a big advocate of designing a house to suit the lot it is going on. If our property were flat, we would have built on a conditioned crawlspace.

Oh wow! This moved fast! Thank you for all of the input, I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to respond sooner. To answer a few questions... our home is currently 4 bedrooms/2 full and one half bath. On the main floor are the kitchen, laundry, powder room, family room, morning room (used as main dining area), library, and screened in porch (with vinyl windows). Upstairs are the four bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms. My boys are 13, 10, and 4. We homeschool so all areas of the home are used on a daily basis. As far as guests go, we only have family visit once or twice a year and only 2 people at a time. We do not need a dedicated guest room. The basement is not a full walkout, it has an areaway, full patio door with steps up to the patio. There are 6 functioning hopper windows. There are currently no egress windows in the space. We’ve had two quotes to finish the basement, one in 2015 and one just last week. I had the same local basement contractor come out both times (not a basement finishing company, but a higher end contractor that does just basements). The pricing has increased dramatically in that timeframe. We’re talking $16k more from 2015 to 2020 for the exact same quote. I follow the real estate market in our area and I would say that it’s about 50/50 for finished basements in our neighborhood. Of those that are finished some have been done by the builder, some by homeowners, others by small local contractors, and others by higher end basement specific contractors. The list price is not impacted that greatly by a finished basement. For example, a home that is the same floor plan as ours that had all updates made to the main living areas and did not have a finished basement sold for $360k last year. Another home (same floor plan) just 2 houses away from that one is listed right now with a finished basement (no bathroom) for $349k. Nancy R z5- The dead space in my upstairs living isn’t an issue with outlets, it’s because of the size of the room and because I have a tall bookcase in that corner on the side of the fireplace. If I took the bookcase down and put a cabinet or table there I could have a lamp in that space.

The building industry for some time now in basements has been engaged in a haphazard "cross your fingers" approach to trying to insulate without creating mold/moisture/etc problems by using vapor barriers, liquid membranes, sealants, etc. It turns out it was mostly for naught. The research shows the best insulation configuration is to just simply let the dang vapor go where it wants. No plastic, no vapor barrier, nothing is best when it comes to the insulation, even in cold climates. Rock wool is actually a good product for basements, I'd leave it, but I'd peel that vapor barrier off. Then I'd get some mildew resistant sheet rock(the green stuff) and drywall over it. The green sheet rock is not in any way moisture or mold invincible, but it is slightly better than normal sheet rock. Make sure to keep the sheet rock up off your slab and 1/2" or so away from that corner you talked about. Also, in the corner, if that is an untreated stud, I'd pull it and put a new ground contact rated treated stud. They "technically" are not approved for inside use but you don't want untreated wood up against your foundation. You can seal between the new stud and the foundation with caned foam and put a piece of synthetic trim like PVC or whatever you want in to cover the gap between the drywall and stone.