There are a couple of things that come to mind, if a payment is missed the lender cares, if the servicer goes out of business or misses a substitution of trustee, the lender cares, if the borrower goes to the lender to try to get removed from the loan (usually to buy another house) the lender cares, if the property gets caught up in a bankruptcy or divorce, the court cares and that means the lender gets involved.

Focus on education, networking, and analyzing deals carefully to ensure your first investment sets a strong foundation for future growth.Good luck!

Beyond carefully vetting the tenants, how can an investor protect themselves from squatters if we want to sell years down the road?

I signed up with them about 3 to 4 months ago, then found out how expensive the loan was to get going with them and told them that I would self finance it instead but they had to cancel the loan first...they use a company called Special Financing Company..the person I spoke to at REI his name is Paul, he said he would take care of canceling the loan, but a month later I realized that they were pulling $599 out of my bank account.

I also don’t like renting really nicely rehabbed properties, most renters don’t take care of properties as well as we would hope.

It is a perfectly good fridge, tenants don't care.

I would be very careful about what neighborhoods you invest in, though; Cleveland has some serious war zones. 

In Phoenix, where I’m based, or in markets like San Antonio, the best realtors do more than just list properties.. they go “driving for dollars” to find oppurtunity, leverage their local networks (probate attorneys, CPAs, divorce attorneys) and carefully analyze each property’s cash flow.

We take care of the entire process—from sourcing and purchasing properties to managing renovations and the final sale or rental.

.- Since we're not really in full control of the property, the Hold Harmless also indemnifies us against anything that goes missing at the property and squatters.We get asked/told to do all kinds of crazy stuff by owners, who either don't care what happens to us or haven't really thought everything through.Hope this addresses your question.