Incidentally, bullet point #3 above means you should consider not applying OP advice equally to all mortgages across all properties.

You're dodging a bullet not working with this customer.

They are liens usually for income tax liabilitiesYesSee bullet point 1.

Gurus don't recognize these differences, if they did their claims as to your ability to make money with their schemes would be limited, that's not what they are selling, if you  can't get rich you won't be buying in to their product.Being full of energy and enthusiasm is great as a younger investor, many get too cocky too soon too thinking they know when in reality they are still very naive, your BS Meter isn't fully calibrated yet.

The ABC's of Real Estate Investing has some great tips on evaluating markets and forming a team to help find market and submarket information that might give clues to current status, future growth, planned developments, major highway expansions, progressive agendas like building bullet trains to connect cities like Chicago and Milwaukee.  

But there's a lot of people who are still making it work, either by finding the upside and time in a deal, or biting the bullet and renting out bedrooms in SF to make it cash flow..

or bit the bullet, buy and then fix as I can using the funds from my paycheck and the savings I would have due to a lower mortgage payment then rental costs. 

By leveraging the expertise of a professional, you can minimize your investment of time and energy in putting your IRA capital to work.  

My bullet point thoughts are:* You have to live somewhere; if you can make your residence also provide some rental income and property management experience, so much the better* Do you actually want to live in that house/area, apart from the #s?

Oh and the tenant will try to sue you for some BS that gets later thrown out of small claims court but still wastes your time and mental energy*.