Deep down, the real answer is that she doesn't want to dip into her funds now if she doesn't have to; rather give up some of the profit than going out-of-pocket.The money is to be deposited to an escrow account, held by a title company that has been in business for a long time, so that offers some assurance.

@James Woodrich  I can assure you that no bank on Earth is going to allow you to just step in and take over the note with their blessing so why waste your time?

I don't think you will get any assurance walking into this deal so you should proceed with caution.The government will force a land sale when it is in the best interest of the public however they will contact the owner of the property and a price will be established. 

I give the neighbors my phone number and assure them lawns will be mowed, weeds sprayed, sidewalk shoveled, etc.

@Sajan JivaCPA license is a state designation.From a tax perspective - a CPA who lives in NY is not breaking any laws or codes for filing a tax return or providing tax strategies to those who live outside of New York.from an audit perspective - A CPA may be limited in signing assurance/audit related documents to the state that he practices in.You should be eligible to write off the items you mentioned.

Also, if you can provide a cleaning person or  company with an assured stream of business, you can certainly negotiate better rates.

Deal falls through, earnest $ lost - they are totally jaded now and her hubby doesn’t want to invest anymore.In my case, the same loan officer assured me that I could buy a triplex investment property for 20% down.

Also, the first time the plumber showed, despite me communicating with them since morning that he'd be there and being assured they'd be home, the one was upstairs with his girlfriend and couldn't be bothered to answer the door. 

The issue is fluctuating income, you could have 30k first quarter and 5k second quarter, in short, lenders will not know if you can pay 3 months of mortgage on that second quarter, whereas if it is a W2, they will know that you will have the paycheck regularly and more assured you have something to pay their debt with.

At that point, I spoke with Clayton who assured me that Oceanpointe would complete all work as promised and deal with city violations.