She is also phenomenal at landscaping and building awesome gardens, stone walls and rock water features.

I'd say don't rock the boat.  

You could get all fancy and stuff with the wrap-arounds and the subject to's and all of these other clever tricks to hide that you are taking over the home but contrary to popular belief, lenders aren't stupid, and i've seen too many accelerations for transfer without written lender approval to do so, to think otherwise.

The same questions could be made about investors, agents, lenders, escrows etc... some will rock, some will suck. 

actually based in the greater long beach area.i took a quick look at PWR.net and some of their links are currently broken =/ but its the organization and their MLS access i'm interested in joining, not their website per say and well.. i'm always optimistic about supporting the little guys / startups rather than just going with the most popular which the masses flock tolet me know the good the bad of em out there? 

However, I will play a little devil's advocate here concerning RE and the stock market.Contrary to popular belief, real estate investment, other than REIT's, some syndicates, and some TIC's, is not a passive endeavor. 

Daytona is investing millions of dollars into the infrastructure due to the amount of growth and commerce coming to the area. http://www.onedaytona.com/ Also, Hard Rock is building a new complex right on the beach.

List source is a popular list data site. 

I prefer to do all rocks because they'll never go bad 

Some of the strategies to use that equity on a small multiplex are popular here on BP.