@Edward Mahoney  You're correct that FHA is owner occupied and as memory serves me, it's supposed to be at least 12 months unless there's some verifiable reason like a job transfer.Don't fake the owner occupancy bit. 

They did the walk through and there were no problems and I called to verify.

I like that one because the landlord enters all the tenant info (SSN, etc.) which the tenant gets an email to verify. 

Just a couple quick responses (and I'm no expert so you should probably verify with one if necessary):If he doesn't pay and the building is collateral then you would have the right to foreclose, however, foreclosure in NJ can take a long time and be costly.

Of course, I verified the author was the property owner and called him and personally spoke to him to make sure he actually wrote it, and when I spoke to him he spoke highly of her. 

Where I am, they don't send inspectors around to verify people living in homes are related, they get reported by frustrated neighbors who call in.

Sounds like it’s a small office and the rent is small, so it should be easily verifiable.

This is basically where docusign asks personal questions from your credit report to verify your identity prior to signing.

Are you taking the borrower's word for it or do you have a way to verify this?

To check if they have liens, you can take it to your local title company but what happens if there’s a lot of properties you want to invest in, since it can cost some money to check the liens on the property, is there a cheaper way to verify this information so that you don’t purchase a 20,000 home with a 60,000 lien on it?