The best bang for your buck is arguably 30-90 day trades and I would have made a ton more by having a shorter time frame, but I am happy with my gains and the risks required.Apologies to the op for the hijack but I think this relates to his belief that at some point the house of cards will collapse. 

Typically the opening bid is equal to the amount of taxes due plus costs.To redeem a property, the owner or interested party must pay the purchaser the amount the purchaser paid at tax sale, plus 20% of that amount.

@Dan H. answer is detailed and correct.The cost to convert your garage to ADU is not equal to the comparable sales which is what is used for an appraisal.If you want to put your Mom on site to help her and the goal is not for financial reasons it will make sense.

People seem to interchange the words as equal but they are not.

In other words, all other things being equal, does being highly leveraged give you any additional asset protection? 

Just plan to keep expenses on a spreadsheet.  6) We got an umbrella insurance policy vs LLC - lots of forum threads on here about the differences and which one is best depending on situation.  7) An emergency fund is paying yourself, I don't sleep well whenever mine gets low.  8) For me, it would depend on your financial level, time to retirement, and/or if you have income you need to offset or not. 9) you need to figure out if selling with the up-to- $250,000 capital gains tax free for primary residence is better financially for you than renting as you'd be converting to a rental and potentially losing that tax advantage (takes a lot of monthly rents to equal that benefit), and talk to your accountant about the depreciation as I think they still value it as depreciated when you sell even if you forget to depreciate at tax time.   

And so, even though you may have a lease for $2600 that’s not to say they will be able to rent it out at that price if you are forced to foreclose and order default on the loan for an equal amount.

We could take that equity and purchase a more expensive home in an equally desirable neighborhood in our new city and push the leverage.

This log will equally aide your attorney. 6th - STAY ON YOUR ATTORNEYS BUTT!

Downside on FHA is the Self Sufficiency rule where all units, taken at 75% of gross rents must at least equal the total mortgage payment including property tax, home  insurance and FHA monthly mortgage insurance.