Be prepared to lose vendors and recognize when a vendor is too small for a job.

If you cannot find at least 3 comp properties with an ADU, then be prepared for a horrendous valuation (<=$100k).  

Also, since you rely on this income, you likely aren't prepared to weather VERY negative situations such that they could have a significant personal impact on your own personal financial situation. 3.

If you do want to transfer the title, you have to be mindful of your lender and willingess to cooperate, be prepared to pay transfer taxes based on the assessed value and other deed preparation & recording fees.Assuming liability protection is the primary reason, what events have recently transpired that have you concerned? 

Once you start looking offline for deals it gets a little trickier to get the information if the seller isn’t prepared.

You can do all this without a realtor but prepare to put some decent time and effort into it.

I would guess if you do have 500k in equity you could probably outproduce the cashflow in most markets oustide of CA, and could possibly diversify into more than 1 property.Just some food for thought.

There are also a couple dozen regulars and another couple dozen novices, some of whom wandered over from the bank foreclosure auctions happening on the other end of the courthouse steps.How can you prepare for the auction?

Document everything for yourself, IRS and tax preparer. 

@Nick KnoblachOf course, you should always confirm with your own CPA who is familiar with your situation, but here's a few generalities:- CA taxes residents on worldwide income, so the CA resident will likely be taxed on the entirety of income that he/she receives on his/her CA resident tax return, including his/her share of rental income- CA will likely want to collect tax on all income earned in CA due to CA-sitused real property, so any non-residents in CA should likely be prepared to file a non-resident income tax return in CA to report his/her share of income earned from the CA real property-I'm not familiar with MN rules, but most states generally allow for a credit for taxes paid to another state.