I've been a general contractor for more than 50 years and I don't like to see contractors take good hard-earned money from people and not deliver on their promises.

(who reneged on the other property involved and was over a month late in closing escrow, promised he had $, was a flipper, not wholeseller, but he did not have $, only lies...promises...more broken windows...) 

To add my $0.02, you may want to shift all that amazing efforts on other deals and I promise you, with your fortitude, you will get Mom a better house than this. 

Then put money into the house - took out a wall, new floors (fake wood looking tile), had a bunch of old oak trees taken out, removed hundreds of bags of leaves, repainted the inside and so on.

But, it is good to browse it every so often to be sure your cabin photos haven't been stolen and used for fake listings.

I doubt you provided security monitoring services, all you promised to do to provide a home and the tenant has the custodial responsibly of not letting  it catch on fireAnd of course it was arson.  

it looks to my layman's eye that they were careful not to promise you anything in writing except vague references to "materials" and "time" in the last 2 paragraphs.As an aside, you should blank out the personal info on that application/contract.

It's very much appreciated and I promise I'm using it wisely.

Maybe he’ll let you off one more time if you promise to not letting another person live in there (show them a lease that stated so & show them the tenants broke the lease ....)San Jose is pretty relax with enforcing codes.

I hope everyone who's new to real estate investing will think twice, research, think again, ask around, think again and do more research before buying anything, whether it be a book, a club membership, or anything that promises to give you the secret to real estate investing.