That is a risk, but if you are buying a lien for 10k, and the house is worth 100k, it is worth a gamble.

what if I decide to lien the property due to the gambling problem (or some other problem of that nature) ?

It's a pure gamble at this point and, I'm not much for gambling and if I were, I think I have better odds in Vegas.

For me its: mail (duh), text, google voice, evernote, google drive, skype, logmein ignition (can remote control my PC desktop from my phone), Genius scan (create PDFs from photos), docusign ink (e-signatures) and notability (can sign PDFs but no e-signature verification).

That means "pay your existing debt when due".In the federal governments case, they're like a person with an gambling problem.

Matt, Not knowing much on the CA area, I will speak in generalities.Know the value, on something like this with a 5/1 ARM you are gambling plain and simple, your rolling the dice on your bet that in 5 years time you will be sitting in XYZ position, the financial industry will be XYZ, housing industry, local market, YOUR income, so on and so fourth.

No sorry @Eric Gamble.

Flipping appears to be a simple business on the surface, and if you feel like gambling, it can be simple.

If we use good business principles and don't STAY highly leveraged, which is really gambling, we don't have to be burned when the upswing of a cycle turns into a downturn. 

You're really gambling by pulling the tank yourself.