When they do, they are typically covered by insurance and settled outside of court.The odds of a landlord being sued for a large enough amount that it eats up their insurance, the equity in the investment, and their personal assets is almost non-existent.

I didn't think mortgages notes with "anniversary only" lump-sum payments still existed.  

@Brett Jurgens  What is your current financing terms on the existing loan? 

By then they are usually dodging calls and would just as soon I forgot they existed. 

10% is not going to exist, 15% still does currently, but it will be very hard to make work considering the current environment. 

For most of their existence Fannie and Freddie were privatized.  

But I have never seen a situation were the concept delivery and accompany contracts and paper work was as Poor as this or non existent in many cases. 

we did that except instead of renovating it we knocked the existing home down and built a new primary. right after we were completed we had $500k in equity as we acted as the GC on the project. 

Do they come through and try to justify their existence by pointing out small things for you to fix or is it pretty benign and they're just making sure you're not a slumlord?

We take pictures on a pre-inspection only of existing damage, which generally doesn't exist because we repair anything that happens between tenants.