I'm also going to call and check on Geothermal vs Heat pump VS AC with propane furnace with a local HVAC company that has experience with all of them. My initial research looks like Geothermal may be out of the running because of up front cost.
While I think geothermal heat pumps are wonderful, I would do a cost comparison, and an efficiency comparison between air sourced and geothermal sourced heat pumps for your site. While geothermal had large efficiency advantages over air sourced heat pumps ten years ago, the efficiency advantage has really dropped. In my area, despite great soil, and well opportunities, geothermal never wins on a cost comparison. (Don't forget to factor in the running costs on the geothermal circulation pumps, and fluid changes.)
If you have a tightly sealed house with very low infiltration rate and you have a gas water heater inside that envelope, that may be a problem. When you turn on an exhaust fan in the bathroom or the kitchen, where does the makeup air come from? That gas water heater exhaust pipe is basically a hole to the outside and can have air sucked back down the exhaust pipe.
With a well sealed house, you can, and probably should put in a heat exchanger for the exhaust fans to provide conditioned make up air. There are fancy ones that can humidify/dehumidify the make up air.
One fringe benefit is that they get the fan away from the bathroom or kitchen fan, so they are nearly silent. My folks put one in when they built a new house awhile back, and it was wonderful.
@LittleBittyBigJohn Personally, I am not a fan of on demand water heaters; they have a minimum flow rate to turn on, and intermittent usage, like hand washing, often means either cold water, or wasting a slug of water to get the hot water there. I prefer a recirculating pump on a timer to keep warm water at all fixtures.
I will say that PEX piping makes an enormous difference as the dead volume of PEX piping is much smaller, and more of it tends to be piped off of manifolds so that you get your hot water faster. I prefer the ProPex (upnor) style fittings as you get the full diameter of the pipe for best flow.
All the best,
Peter