Our goal is to walk away with a $100k profit or more to put down on a larger home since we have our 5th child on the way.

I used to travel to SLO quite a bit when I was a child (I grew up in the Central Valley); what a great area.  

We have one child going into college and one a junior in high school.

Other tenant has a small child who were all woken to cops searching and 3 hours of yelling fighting and arguing.

The rule of thumb is to match your net worth with liability coverage, but even if your net worth is lower now than it will be someday, you can be sued and future earnings can be taken--portion of your paycheck for the next 10 years...etc very similar to alimony or child-support. 

I just found out that (her children's father) relocated to Las Vegas and he doesn't pay child support.

We plan to pay this property off in 10 years and at that time use the cash flow to invest in our child's education.  

This way you will know if the seller has IRS liens, liens on the property or child support due or any other items that cause the title to the property to not be CLEAR.But yes, it is legal and this is a great way to find foreclosures before they become foreclosures.

I am my mother’s only child and practically only family.

I had a similar experience a while back, when out of curiosity one day, I got my birth certificate and put the address of the first house that I lived in as  a child in Google Maps.