I need to verify zoning... however, many neighbors have already done similar conversions.

He has already clearly demonstrated his inablity/unwillingness to pay for what he owes.You also should not have let him move ANY of his property onto/into your any part of your property until he has paid you ALL of the initial move-in money (rent + security dep).As for what you should do now, I would cut your losses and refund the $200 he paid to you back to him, and the $400 the GF paid to you back to her.

Now, if you've already verified with an attorney that you can do this and you can charge $50 an hour, proceed.

In fact, when he finally responded, he asked if I wanted him to initiate foreclosure proceedings or just send a letter.

I verified college.Deposit is half of one month rent.

I would verify that information with several sources.

I can ask them for the ss number when they sign the lease, but now I don't have a way to verify it matches what they provided to SmartMove.

To be safe - take what you have and have a local real estate attorney that is familiar with lease options verify it is ok to use.

You say that you're planning to hold these properties after rehab -- have you verified that any of these lenders are willing to lend for more than short-term?

I have been interested for sometime in REI, but haven't brought myself to making that initial leap of faith.My future goal would be to possess a few nice buy and hold properties while taking a stab at rehabbing down the road.