It's the complete opposite where I am - no one will sell their existing homes because they won't give up their ultra-low rates.

The catch 22 of being accused of brokering without a license vs. being accused of taking a net listing as an agent still exists.

So when I'm reviewing screening reports for my rentals, I like to find out the story behind an eviction - I've had good tenants with evictions on their records who never bothered to expunge their eviction from the record when they had a prior vindictive landlord (yes, such landlords do exist and give the rest of us a bad name). 

Regarding DTI - mortgage industry will alllow around 40%, but tenants tend to pay a higher percentage of their income to rent/housing than homeowners.

Unlike a mortgage the interest on your loan will not be tax deductible.

You can have multiple conventional mortgages and have a great credit score as long as you don't pay late or get too close to the maximum debt to income ratio.

Better off buying short term treasuries with as close to zero risk as exists in investing.

Not much to add to the good advice already written, exceptYour mom could easily get a reverse mortgage to pay for her care, then you and your brothers could split the equity left upon sale.

A mortgage lien being the most common one.

Every month, property 2 has been paying most of the mortgage on that Property 1 home equity loan.