Hello Nathan,  to protect yourself as a lender in an owner finance transaction, you should use an RMLO to disclose the loan terms to your buyer and verify their ability to repay the loan. 

REIT's and institutional investors will happily take very low cap rates for safety of protecting their capital and ease of management. 

How are other 'buy & hold' investors financing properties long term and protecting their privacy?

All of the data is shown right in front of you, and you have to apply your own heuristics for selecting the appropriate comps including their age, distance from the subject, counts of rooms, size within of each other, lot sizes, etc.We can discuss all day long about how good or bad Zillow data is, and honestly, it depends very much on the market, and how quickly a sale gets reflected in the public record.In my SoCal market, it's actually pretty quickly, and I often end up using a blend of suggested comps from Zillow and my own comps that I import from other places such as Redfin, your free MLS alternative.

It's important to make sure you're getting it done right and protected in case of an audit. 

@Eric B.From an asset-protection standpoint - there is likely little risk to your assets from owning tax liens(my opinion).

I'm going to setup a meeting this week and I was hoping to get feedback on the question list I have come up with.Thanks for any adviceSteve_____________________________________________________________________________________Is it time to use an LLC to protect the assets?

Does section 8 is a protected thing like other fair house law? 

A little about flood insurance: Protects you from rising VS falling water.

I do not have an interest in working as a RE so I'm hoping there is another option to access properties other than what is out there to the public.