But we are concerned that we may not be shielded or protected correctly from a legal standpoint.

How best to protect myself and my family from being sued?

What I do know from being an investor friendly agent is that regardless of if the buyer is retail or an investor, my job is exceptional service, a strong emphasis in certain areas of expertise, protection of my buyer and their interests and helping guide them to the right homes, not just blanketing them with every house that’s on the market. 

But I'm sure you understand that I also need to protect myself, just in case the rent doesn't get paid."

He shares a ton of content on what to do/not do and how to protect yourself

My point is, i'm confident the junior lien is crunching numbers to see if they want to protect their position and possibly bid at sale so, if you are planning to bid, be prepared for competition.

You should also protect yourself with plenty of homeowner's insurance coverage and possibly putting the house in an LLC/trust.

A real estate trust will create a veil of anonymity to protect my real estate investment.

Conscious decision, timing was important, price reflected generous buffer for known needed work.What I didn't realize is, the tenants are kind of irresponsible slobs, and rather than reporting things to me or applying a _proper_ fix, they'll do a hack fix (e.g. they tied a piece of cloth around a pinhole leak in a pipe, which resulted in expensive water damage years down the line).I've run into a such few cases, where repairs were needed due to long-term tenant negligence (when they rented from the previous owner, so basically before our lease), and I'd like to protect myself and hold them accountable for any future such things that come up.

However, in this case it would make it to the probable category as the rental property itself most likely falls into to the non-exempt category of assets protected by Texas aw