And beyond any realistic worst-case scenario, in my mind I would rather sell my own house and sleep in the car, before one of my investors would lose a cent.

Directly investing in real property investments, whether property, notes, tax liens, or leases requires a THOROUGH understanding of all LEGAL aspects concerning real estate law in general and the investment in particular.It’s IMPOSSIBLE for someone who hasn’t accumulated either a legal education in real estate law or 20 years active experience to have the knowledge and understanding of legal aspects sufficient to reduce legal risk to an acceptable level when investing directly in tax liens, notes or real property.  

Quote from @Eric Prescott: Yes, I understand that appreciation often means less cash flow and good cash flow typically means weaker appreciation, but there is a sweet spot where there is decent appreciation and sufficient cash flow to cover expenses so that the property pays for itself, and that is what I'm honing in on. 

A Mortgagee nor a Deed of Trust Trustee carries out the auction themselves.The result of the auction is (a) no bid exceeds the minimal amount of reserve to the Mortgagee thus the Mortgage/DOT will be extinguished and the Mortgagee will receive title to the real property, (b) a bid is sufficient to exceed the minimal amount of reserves to the Mortgagee thus the Mortgagee's debt is paid, extinguished and title passes to the bidder who made said bid.

Our application requirements with fee information are here.I don't know anything about Zillow's application, but I would think it may be sufficient.2.

I was just wondering if that was sufficient.

None of these reasons are sufficient to justify a failure of fiduciary responsibility. 

So if you ave sufficient income to hold the properties and goal is long term wealth building, you are likely to be good.

In addition if I paid a tenant to $crew me, it may cause me to lose sleep.

I've been losing sleep over this!