As I mentioned above, the risk of being sued, found guilty, and fined more than your insurance will cover is almost non-existent. 

Knowing the three cities mentioned is important for grading the neighborhoods and can vary street by street. 

Via court docket when the case is filed. this is the fastest and earliest place to find foreclosures/defaulting loans/mortgages, via the filing of the case at the court, but, as mentioned, if the process within your state does not have to go through a court (non judicial option) you wont find records of the notices there.

No renting of any kind and explicitly mentioned even renting to others who live with you.

You mentioned that you did your due diligence and that the people behind the project are legit.

Thats a good reason to bring in no longer help myself in person to person negotiations on it.When I mention a revocable license agreement to continue use of the are in back, that is what the agent offered of his own accord and it and was explained to mean that if they were to need to do work there  I would not be compensated.

you will need to look at the APN of the property and line it up with what you actaully bought. as mentioned the tax assessed value is not an indicator of value. the land could be a utility easement, used for stormwater management etc.

A two bedroom 1,300 sq ft cabin is going to go for way less than a 2 bed, 2,400 sq ft cabin.One of the issues out there too is that some are setup as legal 2 bedroom cabins because of the septic but then they have lofts and such that allow you to rent them out as 3 or even four bedroom cabins to improve the rent.You mentioned one nearby you with a similar layout.

A couple of things to keep in mind: you mentioned PadSplit.

Like someone else mentioned, doing a short term rental in a secluded basement that is very private and walled off is one thing, but sharing the same refrigerator, kitchen thermostat, etc. with a complete stranger seems like it will introduce more problems than what the money is actually worth.