I could replace it with a natural gas one, but I'm concerned about safety issues.

See the following light reading in well versed IRS speak:http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-wd/0345022.pdfCode section 1.103-8(b)(5) in summary says that a residential rental project must be open to the public to be considered residential rental property.Code section 1.103-8(b)(4) states that a residential rental property can not be transient in nature and must meet open to the general public.I won't bore you with all the details.Some interesting situations that come up due to the code.

Naturally this is essentially the same thing as owner financing--just without a price and interest rate defined.This particular house was $695/month and I would guess the investor's cost basis is in the region of $20k.

Another issue is the business nature of your activities, are you in the business of doing this or that or are you truly investing for youself, is a question you need to address when figuring out if you need a license.

What's the nature of your main gig?

Yes, by the very nature of commercial lending, it is assumed that commerce is conducted by and between business people, a more sophisticated set of participants that allows profits to be gained under different conditions than with the general public.

It's a room-mate situation, those are always unstable - nature of the beast.

There are sucker rates, that move after 6 months, commercial so the rate is just under the clouds as they may determine from time to time, can call with notice and they are short term vehicles by nature.

That is the unique nature of the land trust and one of the primary reasons it was used.Need a clearer understanding of this?

So changing the locks is only symbolic in nature in my state.