& the excess volume of water/waste can & will back up with a lot of hydrostatic pressure via the easiest route.... your basement.

Portfolio lenders rarely require the use of a property manager or keeping excess reserves in the bank outside of a possible tax and insurance escrow.

Normal wear and tear is covered by the lease, however excessive damage is not.

Not sure exactly how this is handled in a Subject To, when you refi under your name b/c the old mortgage and if there is an escrow account, it's possible that any excess funds at payoff may be refunded to the original mortgagee and not you!

Let sit for a little while then sponge away the excess and peel off.

Or in the near future you sell the property for more than $120,000 to pay the mortgage and also profit any excess of $120,000.

If you take out ~ 400k from that, you'll have 100-150k for a downpayment on a nice house and a nice amount of money to either fix up the new place or invest as you choose.From what you've said so far, tying up 400k of equity in this as a rental sounds too risky for my appetite.

Many lenders, including myself are not going to even try to distinguish between residential homestead and residential investment property - we are just going to stick with commercial property where the borrower can't later move in and have his attorney claim we made a non conforming consumer loan.Casualty of excessive Government interference in the market.

You can then sue in small claims for damages in excess of security deposit.

I would start out renting it and reevaluate for rent to own later, especially if you get a tenant that it would work with, if you have the appetite to landlord to the low income.