Another unfortunate situation with a lot of these sorts of tenants is that they are "judgment proof", meaning, even if you were to sue them for damages, they do not make sufficient income or have sufficient assets to collect on your judgment.

And even if it were stunning newer granite of quartzite, removing installed granite is difficult and usually will crack as it is glued down with some sort of caulk.

What sort of risk mitigation will help you sleep at night the most?

I use this to sort of "sell the area".  

Licensing --- Most reputable lenders regardless of whether they only do private money loans or not will have some sort of licensing 2.

First of all, you want to do your due diligence to make sure you know what your are getting into and hopefully you can get some sort of assurance from the Town that the two family is legally non-conforming.

Have someone call, email text showing interest in the lead and see what sort of response you get.

Our experience has been that when this happens (we have had this situation at least 4 times) it always plays out the same way, there is some sort of clerical error and we usually have it resolved in 1 -2 months AND they pay the back rent.

It is all other people's money, whether it is an individual or a fund of some sort that was put up by a group. 

The building does have a nice sort of drive through driveway.