What if you turn on water and it goes everywhere.

The biggest thing with this is if something major happens are you legally covered if the unit is illegally rented. 

Essentially ended up screwed out of a substantial chunk of retirement savings and left to find my own lender elsewhere to close the deal.

-- How many and which websites is it on overall?

In my area, U&O inspections are done on every sale and varying rentals from annual to just on turnover.

Would it be helpful to connect on a call and talk through details of this property and laon types? 

(The Black Friday sale on the Bigger Pockets bookstore was where I did my own Christmas shopping so my family knew what to ‘buy’ for me!).

They get a higher return since they are covering housing cost, have the $250k per spouse primary residence deduction in gains, is a savings account, higher leverage position, lower interest rate possible, will pay more premium for location, etc.House might be overpriced for REITs but not for home owners.  

A self-directed IRA or 401k can be a great vehicle for loaning money to others without getting hit with taxes on the interest income.

The next option is to get the device (you can get on Amazon) that shows the meter for what one unit is pulling versus the other.