Based on your original post, hard money lending may indeed be another potential option for you if you don't want to wait years cleaning your credit score before you can start investing - HMLs are willing to work with clients who have a lower credit score, so long as there are other assurances, e.g. more of your own money down, higher interest rates, etc.

And rest assured, I'm not going to go call the 401k company tomorrow and request a check. ;)

It took a good 10 minutes on the phone to assure her that I couldn't pick her, her kids or her house out of a lineup of people or houses.  

Vacancy rates are known to the 10th of percent, so if you see a flat 5% presented I can assure you that is not the actual and might be 13.5% in reality. 

Our $75k+ homes usually have longer tenancies, less late rental payments, less lease compliance issues, cheaper reconditionings/turns, shorter vacancies, less maintenance/service costs, etc.

It's nice to hear that assurance from a professional like yourself!

I've been assured by my title insurer that the tax lien doesn't follow the property owner.

I assure you I did close on the property myself so I don't see any illegal activity in this case.

although they will look at your income, net worth and liquid assets to assure you could cover the debt in the event that something went wrong.sounds like you're in a good mindset but you might wanna think about reading some more or taking on a partner if you're going to be jumping straight into a 10 unit mf.

But they assured me that, 1) why would they "run" from a machine that is working and generating cash over and over again, and 2) every property would be considered and approved by the group before being put in rotation, so we would each agree that it is worth the higher valuation before giving the go ahead to move forward and so the worst case scenario is that I would be left with the deed to a cash flowing property.