If they feel you are tight on cash, they'll demand a jury trial because they know you won't have the extra $3k to pay your attorney to prepare for that and will settle.

In a tight highly populated area zip codes can be pretty geographically small. 

Hi ChrisWhen I run into something like that I pull up the floor a little further back and cut the cast pipe where it is straight using a grinder or a sawzall if its really tight. 

Lower priced inventory is especially tight, but really everything but higher end homes are in short supply right now. 

That's why I need y'all two to weigh-in on this con-waiting-to-happen to both my fiancé and I over getting duped out of a false feeling of urgency to move (our deadline is 21st or latest the 28th of this month to start moving to be out no later than the 5th of Nov.).Granted, I was the person who made the mistake of thinking our current rental that we are now moving from was a good deal, as I had no clue illegal rentals by slum lords breaking Code and evading property taxes was even an issue here in the DMV of all places.

Rental market is tight as most properties have been leased up heading into winter.  

Works for me, although I agree with some of the others that inventory is getting tight, but it's helping on the back end.

The refurb will include structural so I’m assuming I would have to use the Standard 203(k), which has no price cap but limits you to a single contractor, six month deadline and requires inspections of all the workI’m guessing this would mean a much higher price tag for the refurb, and less flexibility around scheduling and execution of the workI am unsure whether a hard money lender would favor such a deal, but I would imagine that if we could secure a loan we would not be limited to using a single contractor and could get the job done for less.Exit StrategyIdeally, we would like to do a cash out refi after the refurb and roll the profits into the purchase of a multi-family.

Is there a deadline by which you have to pay off this tax lien?

If you plan on them moving in on that tight of a time window something will come up.