Unless its an unusual situation, specifically, a contract for deed (aka land contract, installment land contract), you do really own the house.

A five year hard money loan would be very unusual.

Not unusual.

@Jon Klaus  I live in Sunnyvale, rentals in Mesquite and one in Garland, the Garland one is always the most expensive to insure.I will say one reason my residence is so cheap, they (insurance company) put a new roof on a couple of years ago, and reduced my rate,,,sort of unusual, I have a rather expensive claim, and the result is my rate goes down!

A very unusual situation here.2nd deed of trust trustee sale opened at $218kAt the same time the 1st deed of trust opened at $27kNo subord agreements - no other liens.In NC we have a 10-day upset bid period that resets every time a new bid is placed.The house is worth upwards of $650kWe are bidding on the 1st - we were just upset again.

They have since contacted me about the toilet leak, as it made their water bill unusually high.

Is it unusual to structure partnerships so that the sponsor/operating member of the partnership (the person that put the deal together and managed it) completely cashes out the equity partner during a refinance and assumes 100% ownership of the property? 

There are some "gurus" that will even give you a plan for free if you agree to do a deal or two with them.The only time you need to write out your own plan is if you're doing something more unusual; such as converting private residences into commercial property, rehabbing a vacant high-rise tower, or ...Residential rehabs, rentals, bird dogs are all pretty standard business strategies and they work.

Yes; you send this information to the last known address (your rental property); if it is not forwarded you collect the envelope and keep it in your files UNOPENED as proof that you met the requirements for the state for notifying the tenant of this.It is not unusual that deadbeats who owe rent and do damage to property will take off leaving no forwarding address. 

Does seem unusual that ALL your deals went sour, even the law of averages would have at least seen a couple come through or break even though?