Any investment is a gamble - not as risky as the craps table, but never guaranteed - and you shouldn't be gambling with your future.

Feels like a gamble with the appraisal.

If the borrower lied, it would be a criminal act and while there is no statute that I'm aware of that says it's against the law to do a lease option/lease back, there are statutes that say its against the law to make fraudulent attestations/statements on a loan/short sale to a federally regulated financial intuition.

It's a gamble to sign up for those tasks for sure unless you really want to learn and get your hands dirty.

Gamble on Magic Johnson coming in and the area appreciating.  

I understand as long as you can prove that you didn’t get the mortgage fraudulently (it sounds like you had every intention of living in it), and you keep paying the bills every month- they won’t care.

There are things such as fraudulent inducement, dealing in bad faith etc. that can come back to bite you if you had no intent of no ability to close the deal. 

I personally don't like the smaller stuff because I want more units of cash flow and don't want to depend on appreciation (to me thats gambling). 

I kept searching for fake ads and reporting them as fraudulent.

Proctor and Gamble just established a large manufacturing facility in the area, which is bringing in many jobs for people.