Regarding the tenants safety, just like you performed your due diligence, the tenant would have to do that as well in order to protect themselves and family members.I also have that added into my lease with website/state police information.

A good deal is where the actual performance of an asset meets your expectations of profitablitiy when you went in to the deal. 

I don't see that the escrow money is non-refundable but I guess it is not explicitly refundable.If you are a retail buyer, you want to be able to perform a full inspection, not just termites, etc, and you want to be able to get out of the agreement with your ernest money if the seller declines to remedy any significant issues.That said, it has been a long time since I bought a house and the purchase agreement was contingent on an inspection.

I'm a newer note investor, picking up a few deals (performing and non performing).

I am open to all types of investing while focusing slightly more on rehabbing since I want to start a design build firm (high performance residential). 

He owns his own business doing cleaning and renovation work already so our business together is just one part of his work, which sometimes can cause some scheduling conflicts but we have worked thru it pretty well.Tenants pay rent direct electronically or by bank depositI sign the leases here and send electronically, with the maintenance guy handling the paperwork and also witnessing the signing.He gets paid about 1/2 of what a full service PM company would per month for being available and responding to minor repair calls (1 hour), and 1/2 a months rent for handling showings and performing in-person screening.  

Most roofers will not perform a large job unless the investor or home owner can show they have the funds to pay when the work is complete.

As far as you bringing in your work income, that's not relevant because you'll want to see how the property performs on its own.

Again, it is a gray area) you perform renovations or even just cosmetic fixes on these houses that you buy and later resell and/or a substantial percentage of your income came from flipping, well then chances are that they'll determine that you ARE in the flipping business and you can kiss goodbye any dreams of only paying long term capital gains rates on the profits for any flip homes held for more than a year!

I'm very new to the idea of investing in notes generally, and I have a question regarding non performing notes specifically: I feel like I heard/read somewhere that it's not legal (or not ethical?)