On top of that, found out today that there was a tenant where four prior judgements/evictions combined that were all missed.

They spoke of fire hazards with the houses being so close together, obstruction of view & encroachement of neighboring property (immediate neighbor), the idea of skinny houses not fitting the neighborhood or looking ugly, even passing judgement that they could not live in a house that skinny or that close a neighbor, when we know there are plenty of new buyers entering the nashville market that would.

It's foolish for you to pass judgement on someone in this sense, don't you think? 

They don't care, good luck getting money from these people if you put a judgement on them.

both contract for deed and deed of trust and note would formally have to be foreclosed. the advantage of the CFD is the property stays in your name so no way for the borrower to get a lien against them self that would then force you to foreclose to wipe out a junior.for a buyer CFD is dangerous since they don't have title and the owner could on the flip side get a judgement against them self and cloud their title.

I want to be able to use my best judgement when selecting tenants.

From my understanding, even though we are both responsible for any liability, it's not a 50/50 split (i.e. if it's a 600K judgement (in this hypothetical, assume no insurance coverage) and I have 500K in assets and he has 100K, it's not like I only owe 250K, the court would make me pay 500k right?

Bad contracts, an error in judgement and bad luck can add up to cost yo THOUSANDS.

It is simply bad judgement on their part.

When you buy your first investment in your name, then everything in your name is subject to any judgements that arise - and they are all in your name.