A relative comes back, an office becomes needed in a home (lots of different reasons for that possibility), another child is on the way, more storage needed as you co-exist longer and acquire more stuff.

Abandoned means owner has departed and has no intention of ever returning, selling, renting, or giving it to someone else such as a child. 

The first one is the hardest and it sounds like you had some additional challenges with your first child on the way.  

I get really angry every time I hear about a poor child or infant that was mamed or worse by a pit bull.

If a child had elevated lead then you need to go through a specific process.

Since I plan on living in it with my wife and small child, I'm trying to balance finding a great deal, being somewhat close to work, and living in a good neighborhood.

I have dreamed about entering into RE every since Monopoly was introduced to me as a child.

CA is the poster child for this..

and only after you covered properly the "other" aspects of risk management (insurance, umbrella insurance, proper property management, etc.).Unless you are doing flipping (or AirBnb), in which case I suggest you look into Series-LLC and you operate each flip in its own child-series (if not clear why, ask for more details).Anyway, a lot of this is covered in my notes, and that should save you hours of research and hopefully clear some confusion as to why you want it and when and how.

The hard part is im married and my wife is not in on the house hack thing as we have a child on the way.