I have been looking for a home in Southern California... which I do not want to go the typical route because of competition and also my tax returns are not so friendly to conventional lenders.  

A FSBO seller also has more liability, and doesn't have Errors and Omissions insurance like a listing agent does.

Heh, heh, heh By deeding it back to the seller, the buyer causes all kinds of other unanticipated legal and tax problems.

Seller financing still implies a transaction and therefore a tax event.

You can find good deals on the foreclosure list or tax list. 

Thanks Your rental income (does not matter if long term or short term) of your schedule E is calculated using this form: https://content.enactmi.com/documents/calculators/Form1038.C...Your schedule C income will be averaged over the last two filed taxes returns.

Also there are weather issues with Indiana winters and pipes possibly freezing, thunderstorms and hail damage2) Knowing how long to hold onto a property, 1031 exchange it to another property or DST, or in some cases sell it and pay the small capital gains tax (if any) to have less headache. 3) Underwriting the deal incorrectly (factors: local appreciation, rate of rental increase, economic growth, gentrification of area) and being overly optimistic (a renovated 100 year old home is still going to have problems).

I purchased my first tax lien and need to get the property placed as abandoned so we can start foreclosure.

We were even able to save the borrower from paying the hefty NYS and NYC recording tax by arranging for a CEMA with the existing note.

Not sure what new tax laws bring to the table.