Wayne that is interesting and I can see that for the safety of those folks given the state of our country these days.One thing I ran into in Oregon is senior tax deferral. its not something that shows up on the tax collector rolls you have to call a special number at the county the property is in and talk to someone in the tax to department to see if the property is in senior deferral and if so how much..

As a buy and hold investor mine are: safety (first), security (second), function (third), and aesthetics (looks are last).  

"-------------------------------------------------You are being utterly unrealistic, to the point of being a unicorn hunter.Remember the old stock picker's choice: High growth, High safety, and High dividends -- Choose two.

When analyzing a deal, what metric do you prioritize over the rest? 

You're a flipper/rehabber, so having a significant amount of personal debt is going to eliminate safety nets if a future project goes south and you need to float it.

But I need to consider the safety of my children. 

Also the annual inspection is not a home insprection they just look for safety issues and such .. the house could have major issue and still pass hud insrpection

They go into my unit and basically tell me they really recommend replacing the unit because it’s leaking oil as well, has primitive safeties, the ductwork wasn’t even screwed together and there was a crack in the heat exchanger and to make sure I had new CO detectors… I knew the unit was very old and did not look the best by any means and kept a mental note that it would probably need to be replaced in the near future but it was still pretty operational so I wasn’t too worried.

The interest rate for the conventional loan just seems a bit too high to me but obviously gives me the stability and safety of it being 30- year fixed and I can always refinance in a couple of years if rates go down. 

The designs will need to meet life safety requirements as well: egress, windows and door sizes, etc.Can't help you with the Arizona property except to acknowledge it's an awesome state!